


Uchiha Toshiko: Time Loop

by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters



Category: Naruto
Genre: Do-Over, Fix-It, Gen, Time Loop, Time Travel, Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24554716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters/pseuds/PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: Follow Uchiha Toshiko as she transforms from a perfectly 'average' academy student to fate's chewtoy, living a life that completely ignores the laws of life, death and time.
Comments: 50
Kudos: 208





	1. 1

The first time Uchiha Toshiko died, she was twelve years old.

It seems morbid, but that was when her life took an interesting turn (Not that she saw it that way). Prior to that, she was just an average orphan academy student from the Uchiha clan, on the verge of graduation. The only fact that set her apart from her peers was that she didn't actually want to become a ninja.

Unfortunately, her unwillingness on the matter didn't amount to much when she was completely dependent on the orphan funds provided by the Uchiha clan since she was 5, and the clan had a very dim view of civilian life, believing that only shinobi could bring glory and honor to the clan. Toshiko didn't believe in that tripe, but regrettably she couldn't say that to the clan elder's wrinkled faces if she wished to see her next food check.

In order to survive long enough to enjoy the finer appreciations of civilian life as a retired ninja (with minimum of ten years of service to the village), she aimed for the dead end job for ninja- genin corps. She didn't have to try very hard for it. Her complete lack of motivation to practice the ninja arts coupled with her genetical inclination towards the subject, led her to be placed comfortably in the middle of her class rankings.

Add that to Konoha's current attitude towards the Uchiha, she was shoe in for a position in the genin corps. The only things left for her to do were- to graduate and successfully fail the jounin-sensei's test. She would feel bad for her potential teammates if she didn't already know that she would be put in a team with students expected to fail and witha jounin sensei who didn't have any intention of passing a team.

Toshiko's plans, however, were derailed when on a night one week prior to her graduation, as she was returning to the Uchiha compound after buying groceries; the streets of the compound were filled with corpses. With sick fascination, she observed the severed head of Uchiha Yujiro, the elder who she disliked the most; expression of shock frozen forever on his face. 

Toshiko was brought out of her preoccupation by the sound of frenzied footsteps belonging to one Uchiha Sasuke, second son the clan head, running headfirst towards his home.

She didn't have any love for Uchiha Fugaku, but wasn't cold hearted enough to let a seven year old run into a house most likely filled with corpses. Dropping her grocery bags (that was 15000 ryo down the drain), Toshiko ran up to Sasuke with all the speed she could muster, picked him up and ran toward the direction of Nara compound, as the child screamed shrilly, demanding to let him go to his parents. Chances were that the Nara had intruder seals on their boundaries which would be the fastest way to get help.

Toshiko was about two minutes away form the boundary of the Nara forest, when she was blocked by a figure appearing in front of her. She almost relaxed on recognising him as Uchiha Itachi, the clan heir and elder brother of the child currently in her back; before she sensed the killing intent directed at her from those strange shuriken shaped Sharingan, and saw his naked sword coated with fresh blood.

Sasuke, oblivious to the tension, jumped off Toshiko's back to run to his brother, only to stop short and scream before falling to the ground, unconscious. 

Toshiko didn't have much to contemplate what happened to the boy, as she felt a blade slip between her ribs, puncturing her lungs. With an odd sort of detachment, she watched as Itachi pulled back his sword, with her blod added to the rest of the clan members he had murdered.

Toshiko couldn't stop the hysterical laughter bubbling in her gut, even as she fell down, feeling her life slipping away. Fugaku's precious prodigy, the one he claimed to be the salvation of the clan turned out to be its downfall.


	2. 2

Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor. She found it strange because she shouldn't be waking up at all since she was dead.

She gingerly stood up, further revealing that her body had somehow shrunk itself, and looked around. She was in a musty smelling room, with rows and rows of foreign looking masks lined up on the walls, and was holding a good colored mask with a circle drawn on it.

With a jolt, she remembered the place. It was the temple she had found after she had runoff to the north forest, after she got the news of her grandmother's death, when she was five. It was one year after the Kyuubi attack (during which her mother had died) and Toshiko was living with her grandmother, her father already being a casualty of the third shinobi war. The deaths, all one after the other, and the realisation that she was alone in the world, were too much for her, and in all the wisdom of a five year old, she had decided to foresake civilisation and live in Konoha's forests. It had been a few hours of roaming amongst the Hashirama trees when she had found this worn down building had and went in. She didn't remember much after that, but somehow she had gotten her hands on the mask she was holding in the moment, and had lost several hours.

She had slowly made her way back to Konoha and crossed path with the police officers who were looking for her.

Judging by the state of her current body, she hypothesised a few theories.

First: She was dead and this was Pure World. This was the least probable one because it went against every description of Pure World she had read about.

Second: She wasn't dead but in some super genjutsu of Itachi's creation. Again, low in probability, because there wasn't anything he would gain by putting her in a genjutsu.

Third: She had gone mad. She would like to think that wasn't the case, but madness did run in her bloodline. Case in point- Itachi.

Fourth: She had somehow time travelled back to when she was five years old. 

The last option was the she was choosing to go with for the time being. Looking at the strange mask she was holding, she could even guess the source of her predicament.

Trying to follow the script, Toshiko decided to head back to Konoha. An hour later, she found the same police officers as last time. Surprisingly, this time she didn't get scolded.

"Ah, Toshiko-chan. How long has it been since it activated?" Uchiha Shota, her father's old friend, asked sympathetically.

Toshiko blinked once, before understanding what he meant. She hadn't even noticed that she had activated her Sharingan. Getting murdered would do that, she supposed.

She carefully directed the chakra flow away from her eyes, and her vision turned slightly duller, less precise. That was a stupid move since it drew attention to the fact that she could manipulate chakra consciously.

Her rescuers shared a 'discreet' glance before deciding to take her to the clan head.

Toshiko didn't want to go to the clan head, but as usual she didn't have any choice. She hoped she wouldn't encounter the six year old version of her murderer, only the universe didn't wish to grant her even that. 

They encountered Fugaku near the lake teaching the great fireball jutsu to his son. The little genius, of course, got it on his first try. Fugaku's smug smile was a sight to behold, before he turned to acknowledge Toshiko and her rescuers. He narrowed his eyes in disapproval at spotting her.

"You found the run-away, then?" He asked, his tone dismissive, while Itachi stared curiously at them.

Toshiko tuned out the conversation. She didn't have any interest in hearing Fugaku's disapproval of her actions, she had heard enough of it in the original timeline. Instead, she focused on Itachi. He was a six year old chibi, not the devil that murdered her, therefore she was able to keep her more hostile thoughts in check. She was not going to murder the clan heir, no matter what he turned out to be. First of all, nobody would believe her if she told them of the future. Secondly, she didn't want to murder a six year old.

When, he came after her again, she would be sure to give him what he deserved. But, for now, he wouldn't suffer her ire.

"..... enroll her at the Academy." 

"Wait, what?" Toshiko exclaimed, cursing her decision to ignore what they were saying.

"I have been informed that you can deactivate your newly awakened Sharingan consciously." Fugaku said, his tone implicating he found it doubtful.

"You have the Sharingan?" Chibi-Itachi piped up, earning himself a Disapproving Frown TM from his father.

"Yes. I awakened it this morning." Toshiko answered, ignoring Fugaku. It showed how much you hate a person, when you hate him even more than your murderer.

"Clan Law states that an Uchiha with conscious control over their Sharingan is considered an adult. This ties things up nicely, we don't have to find a substitute gaurdian for you." Fugaku sneered, clearly not appreciating her disrespect. 

Aashole. As if he'd bothered to find a gaurdian for her last time.

"You will be joining the academy this year, if you wish to avail the benefits of the orphan fund provided by the clan." He continued.

This was new. The normal for addmission in the academy is six. Fugaku hadn't bothered to get Itachi started early, even though he was a genius. What could be the reason for insisting for Toshiko?

Her question was answered by Shota as he accompanied her home. "It's pretty rare to control the Sharingan at such a young age. You are a potential asset. Fugaku-sama wants to get you close to his heir, by putting you in the same year as him." He explained.

Toshiko managed to control her snort of derision at that.

She was left alone at home with a envelope with some cash. Last time, she had no idea what to do, but now she had an experience of seven years of taking care of herself. She quickly got herself to sort out the house, seperating objects she would be able to sell, stuff to throw, and stuff to keep; her grief over grandma's death an old scat at that point.

She found several of her parents kunai which prompted her think how she'd handle her second stint at the academy. She had gone through it once, she knew what they were going to teach, poorly; but still she won't be able to pretend to be average anymore.

Not that being average would help her in anyway. Her misguided belief that she would be safe as a career genin, had been torn to shreds. She wasn't safe even as an academy student. If she wanted to live she had to be strong; stronger than the person who wants her dead. She could still retire when she'd have completed ten years of service.

Additionally, she knew she had to survive Itachi. She had heard rumours about him being an ANBU at eleven. She needed to put everything she had to fight that kind of genius.  
_________________________________________

Academy didn't turn out to be the walk in the park she'd expected it to be.

On the first day, Chibi-Itachi came up to her desk, greeted her, before taking a seat next to her. Toshiko was probably the only person he knew in the class, but that didn't stop her from being uncomfortable and unable to concentrate the entire time he was there. After lunch break, he changed his seat to the opposite end of the classroom, probably picking up on her discomfort. Somehow, it made her feel bad for rebuffing a child, even though the child in question would become a murdering psychopath.

He didn't talk to her after that, much less anyone else. She silenced the part of her that whispered that perhaps he just needed a friend.

The classes continued. She had the advantage of six years of schooling and the brilliant cheat code that is the Sharingan, and she still wasn't able to beat the boy genius in the class rankings. She was a close second, a far improvement from her previous rankings, but it still rankled to be beaten by a child six years younger than her.

Soon, both her and Itachi were given the chance to upgrade to a higher class. Itachi managed to enter the final year class while Toshiko got into the year below.

It was a bit of a relief to be in a different class than the person who killed her. Her nightmares of being stabbed and drowning in her own blood reduced considerably.

At seven, and a year later than Itachi, Toshiko finally graduated as the top kunoichi. She was proud to say that she had considerab improved in almost all aspects including physical fitness, throwing, chakra control (even though her reserves were bigger this time and thus harder to control), and taijutsu. They weren't taught much ninjutsu or genjutsu in the academy except the academy three and genjutsu dispel method, and those were easy enough that she had mastered them even in the original timeline.

Her growth had stagnated (her Sharingan was stuck at one tomoe even after two years) and she needed a team and a jonin sensei to progress further. So, ofcourse, because the universe hated her, she was put in a team with two civilian born graduates and a jonin sensei who clearly despised the idea of teaching. It was exactly the kind of team she had been hoping for last time when she wanted to get into genin corps.

Predictably, the team failed the jounin's test despite Toshiko's best efforts and they were presented with the option to return to the academy or become career genin.

Toshiko went for the third option and applied for medical jutsu training at the hospital. Her chakra control turned out to be just enough to be entered into the course.

__________________________________________

Working at the hospital was not what Toshiko had in mind for her future, but it turned out to be a rewarding experience.

Fugaku had objected, naturally, because apparently Uchiha were elite ninja and weren't supposed to lower themselves to work as a medic nin. Toshiko asked him if Uchiha could lower themselves to work in the genin corps, and he backed off. Apparently, no progress in the Sharingan for more than two years was enough for him to dismiss Toshiko as a lost cause and relabel her Sharingan awakening as a fluke.

She wasn't naturally good at the mystical palm jutsu and it had taken hours of refining her chakra control, dozens of dead fish and months of hard work before she was even capable of healing a paper cut. During that time she had been helping the healers with non chakra healing, and learning medicine.

At twelve, she had a solid grounding in the subject and had learned enough about the body to practice self healing, which was her intention when she decided to join the hospital. If she couldn't fight Itachi, she could heal herself after he'd stabbed her.

Toshiko took care to remain in her house on the night she remembered the massacre had taken place last time. She hoped little Sasuke would be okay. Considering that Itachi had only put him under a genjutsu last time, indicated that he would be fine, but she couldn't help but worry.

For the hundredth time, she told herself to stop feeling guilty about not warning anyone to what was going to happen. They never would've have believed her.

A slight shift in chakra told her of the arrival of her would be attacker. She prepared herself, gathering her chakra towards her chest, as Itachi approached her blade drawn.

Then he cut off her head.


	3. 3

Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor. She turned her head, which was weird because her head had been cut off; completely removed from her body. She even remembered a moment before she lost consciousness, when she could feel her head being seperate from her body, falling down to the floor, blood leaking from the neck vessels.....

She vomitted everything that was present in her stomach and then dry-retched for some time, before leaving the mask temple, as the smell was beginning to overwhelm her.

She wandered aimlessly, feeling numb, wondering why she hadn't had this much of a reaction after her first death. Was it because of the novelty of time travel or because her the newly awakened Sharingan and the chakra drain because of it, dulled her response?

Speaking of chakra, she had the same amount she had before her head was cut off, and it would grow as she grew up again, she noted absently. It meant that she had to work very hard on the chakra control excercises if she wanted to perform the mystical palm jutsu.

She was faintly aware of her name being called out, but didn't deign to give any response. She was probably in shock, which was understandable, since her head had been cut off from her body a few moments ago.

She was found, hours later probably, by Uchiha Shoto and his team, hyperventilating, with snot and tears running down her face, her eyes flashing two tomoe Sharingan.  
__________________________________________

Toshiko retreated to her home, this time avoiding to show her expertise at controlling her Sharingan. Fugaku didn't much of her awakening a two tomoe Sharingan. Children often activated their Sharingan in emotional distress, (look at Izumi) that didn't mean that they were capable of controlling it.

It was better for to be left alone for a while. With careful introspection, she understood why she had such a strong reaction to her second death. Her Sharingan had been activated when Itachi had killed her. Every moment had been practically seared into her brain in high definition. It was bound to produce a stronger reaction. Secondly, being stabbed and waking up didn't have the same effect as being decapitated and waking up.

Introspection also made her realise the mistakes she had made. She had assumed everything would remain exactly the same even when she herself had changed so much. She had underestimated her enemy, who had access to the information that she was a medic nin, and hence had thwarted her in a way she couldn't recover from.

She had not even tried to fight him. Not that she could, when she had also put all her eggs in one basket.

Toshiko attempted to evaluate her current skill level only to be disappointment. Her taijutsu, physical conditioning as well as shurikenjutsu were all shot to hell, because of her younger, weaker and much shorter body. Her chakra control was fine for now, till her reserves inevitably grew again. The only thing in her arsenal she had was a respectable mastership of the mystical palm jutsu and her current two tomoe Sharingan.

If she followed the same path again, nothing was going to change. Only fools do the same thing again and again and expect a different outcome. 

It was obvious, since Toshiko would be almost certainly unable to fend off Itachi when he ultimately deigned to kill her along with the the rest of the clan, she would have to run.

Since she was currently not even an academy student, the village wouldn't give two dimes about her leaving. The clan, on the other hand, been wouldn't just let someone with a two tomoe Sharingan loose into the world full of eyeball thieves. Not that it mattered. Uchiha were not trackers, and with the current political climate of the village, they won't be asking for any help from the tracking clans.

It was a warm night of April, when after months of preparation, Toshiko chose to leave behind her home for all of her three lives. Trekking through the now almost familiar north forest, she came across the wall in a few hours. Any use of chakra on the walls would have been immediately detected, hence Toshiko used the tree right next to it, to make her escape.

Six hours later, after running almost continuously, in case of any pursuers, Toshiko relaxed and congratulated herself over her successful escape. She was still in fire country and had no intention to leave it. Despite her actual age, her body was actually five and very easy to kidnap by enemy nins in case she was recognised to be an Uchiha.

She also had to hide from the Konoha nin. Even if the village won't send hunter nin after her, any Konoha shinobi wouldn't leave her be if they recognised her as an Uchiha. She had planned for this though. Upon finding a suitable cave, she took out the blue hair dye she packed and carefully applied it to her hair, including her eyebrows. It was a tad difficult with only the river to see her reflection in, but she managed.

A few hours later, Yamamoto Suzuki, a recently orphaned five year old, with bright blue hair, entered the nearby village looking for work.  
___________________________________________

Yamamoto Suzuki lived the civilian life Uchiha Toshiko had always dreamed of. It wasn't as pleasant as she had expected it to be. As a civilian, she was poor, without any access to orphanages or orphan fund. She had expected that, but even when she worked (jobs that were deemed acceptable for a little girl) to earn, she was barely able to make both ends meet. She had to resort to hunting in the forest when she wanted to eat well. Secondly, civilians had a very archaic view on gender norms. There hundreds of things she wasn't supposed to do because she was a girl, at which nobody would have batted an eye in Konoha. Perhaps the civilians in Konoha also had the same mindset, but refrained from saying anything to the ninja who could kill them in seconds.

Suzuki had found that she was able to make most money when she travelled along with caravans, doing odd jobs for the merchants. This also provided her with the opportunity to learn about new places and cultures, all within the fire nation, ofcourse.

It was during one of such travels when she was eight years old, that she encountered Tsunade Senju, the Slug Princess. The child of one of the merchants had got his leg cut from kunai left in what was probably an old battlefield, and Toshiko had to struggle with her conscience to either keep her cover or save the child's life, who was undoubtedly going to bleed out if nothing is done.

At the end, it didn't matter because, a tall black haired women with bob cut appeared and used the mystical palm jutsu to heal the child. The merchant fell over himself to pay her back for the miracle, when she revealed that she was the student of the slug princess, and as a payment for her services would like her master's debt removed, which, judging by the merchant's expression, was considerable. He didn't look happy about it but agreed to waive off Tsunade's debt.

That was when Suzuki decided to approach the Sanin's student.

"Hello." She chirped out, trying to look as cute as possible.

It seemed the woman was a sucker for cute children because her face immediately softened. "Hello. My name is Kato Shizune. What can I do for you, little miss?"

"My name is Yamamoto Suzuki. Will you become my sensei?"

Confusion darted across Shizune's face before clearing up. "Ah, you want to learn how to heal people. I'm sorry Suzuki-chan, only ninja can learn that technique. Your parents wouldn't want you learning it."

"My parents are dead. Besides I can already do it a bit. See?" She countered, using the jutsu to make her hands glow green.

Shizune looked like someone had hit her over the head. "I would have to consult my master on this. Would you mind coming with me?"

Suzuki nodded before being whisked off to a bar. The Senju princess was there, already deep in her cups at ten in the morning.

"Shishou." Shizune started, approaching her. "This is Yamamoto Suzuki. She can perform the mystical palm jutsu."

Tsunade looked at Suzuki with narrowed eyes, and then snorted. "Don't the Uchiha think that teaching their children medical jutsu is something far below their status?"

Oh shit.

"Uchiha?" Toshiko (because she was Uchiha Toshiko, and always will be, no matter what she pretended to be) tried to think of the way to keep up the charade.

"I've lived a long time in Konoha, chibi. And living there meant seeing the faces of the red eyed bastards that are your family. I'd like to believe that I am capable of spotting an Uchiha behind a bad dye job." Tsunade replied.

"Fine." She sighed. She hadn't really expected her disguise to work on the sannin. "I am Uchiha Toshiko. I ran away from Konoha because I didn't want to become a ninja."

"How did you learn the mystical palm jutsu?" Shizune asked.

Toshiko shrugged. "The Sharingan can copy jutsu."

The master and student shared a glance before turning to her. "You can be my apprentice on the condition that you would swear not to act against Konoha."

"I swear." Toshiko agreed. "Wait, that's it? "  
Tsunade smirked. " Yeah, that's it, brat. It's too dangerous for you to roam around own your own when you have the Sharingan. Plus, I can certainly appreciate someone running away from Konoha before even graduating."

Toshiko didn't stop the smile blooming on her face.

__________________________________________

Being Shizune's apprentice basically consisted of being a glorified servant for Tsunade, running away from debt collectors and tonnes and tonnes of medical knowledge that no one in the hospital had thought to impart to her.

Shizune was a perfectionist and slave driver. Apparently Toshiko's mystical palm while passable, wasted a lot of chakra and therefore she had to improve her chakra control. By improving, she meant perfecting.

Hundreds of hours put into the leaf sticking, tree walking, water walking and leaf spinning excercise, finally brought her chakra control up to a level acceptable by Shizune, following which she was grilled in various iryo jutsu. (Apparently medical ninjutsu consistent a lot more than just mystical palm jutsu)

Another interesting fact was that Toshiko had finally lived past twelve. They had heard the news of the Uchiha massacre, with only one surviver left, and Tsunade had asked Toshiko if she wanted to return to Konoha.

She didn't. 

Tsunade had told her that her training would now also include taijutsu and strength training, in case Itachi ever came after her.

Toshiko didn't protest.

What followed her were the most painful years of her life. If Shizune was a slave driver, Tsunade was a devil from hell herself. During the training from hell, if Toshiko broke her bones or ruptured her muscles, Tsunade would heal them right up or worse tell her to heal herself the get back at it and stop whining.

At least, breaking the ground with a punch was cool, which she was able to do after she figured out (after an embarrassingly long time) that the trick was chakra augmentation, which required the perfect chakra control thankfully that Shizune had got her to master.

Toshiko was seventeen when they encountered Orochimaru, who had supposedly led the Sand Sound invasion of Konoha and killed the Sandaime. He wanted Tsunade to heal his arms (which had been rendered useless by the Sandaime by the death reaper seal), in return he would bring back her lover and little brother from dead.

Tsunade asked for a few days to think about the offer, and the next day Jiraiya arrived with the Kyuubi jinchuriki to recruit Tsunade for the post of the Fifth Hokage.

The blonde jinchuriki was evidently friends with Sasuke and couldn't stop commenting about how much Toshiko looked like Sasuke, even when he had a daunting time limit to successfully perform the fourth Hokage's jutsu to win the bet against Tsunade.

On the day Tsunade was supposed to meet Orochimaru, she snuck out after poisoning Jiraiya. Toshiko was pretty sure that the Senju wouldn't agree to Orochimaru's deal especially when he was responsible for the death of her sensei; but to be on the side of caution, she and Shizune healed Jiraiya (as much as they could) and led them to the meeting site.

The resulting skirmish turned into an all out battle between the Sanin and their summons, with Shizune, Toshiko and Naruto barely keeping up with Orochimaru's lieutenant Kabuto, whose mastery of medical jutsu rivaled that of Tsunade's.

At the end, Tsunade was able to overcome her fear of blood to protect Naruto, but Toshiko was unable to see the whether she accepted to become the Godaime, because at that moment she was pulled into the ground by Orochimaru's mud clone and lost consciousness.

It turned out that she hadn't been careful enough during the battle and had activated her Sharingan. Orochimaru wanted to occupy a body with a Sharingan and had already tried his luch with Itachi and was waiting for Sasuke to come to him for power. Toshiko was to be the backup if things didn't go his way with Sasuke.

If that wasn't bad enough, her body was to prepared for possession by Orochimaru, the first step of which was recieving a cursed seal, which had a survival rate of ten percent. For the first time in her life, Toshiko wished for death, partly because of the painful coursing of Orochimaru's slimy chakra through her chakra network and partly because if she lived, her body would be possessed by that monster.

It was a few hours before Toshiko's heart finally gave out.


	4. 4

Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor.

She groaned before opening her eyes to observe the world in the highest resolution she had ever seen. It looked like her Sharingan had fully matured. And it only took three deaths!

Is this going to be her life now? She tried to look at the bright side that at least she had a life. If nature had run its course, she would have died when she was twelve instead of........ Holy shit! She was thirty one.

Her midlife crisis aside, she had to decide about what she was going to do. Leaving Konoha again didn't appeal to her as it did the first time. Maybe replicate her first life of an unremarkable Academy student....

What would that accomplish though? Itachi would still kill her at twelve and she would end up again at the the mask temple in her five year old body. Maybe it was time to think beyond a single lifetime. There was no indication of how many chances she had but her gut told her that it wasn't quite limited.

Maybe she should focus on the skills would be able to come with her after her death, namely ninjutsu, genjutsu and maybe fuinjutsu.

Thankfully, because of Shizune she had reached perfect chakra control and wasn't going aways no matter how much her reserves increased, since she had become very familiar with the intricacies of her chakra and what made it click. 

So, to get the training in the branches she desired she needed to have a jonin sensei (as unlike other people she didn't have parents to depend on), because nobody left instructions to perform a jutsu in a library. To get a jonin sensei she had to overcome the prejudice against the Uchiha.

For that she had to....... Okay, she had no idea what to do about that.

Toshiko sighed. She was going nowhere with this. Coming out of her musings, she realised that she had walked deeper into the north forest instead of going towards Konoha, and now she had no idea where to go. 

Great. 

She decided to continue walking in a random direction, and held out hope that the search party would find her soon, even though she was aware of Uchiha's poor tracking abilities.

Several hours in her walk, she was found by a blank masked ANBU. She let out a sigh of relief (because it was getting dark and she really didn't need to know what kind of chakra mutated beasts roamed in the forest at night), before she was hit on the back of her head and losing consciousness.  
___________________________________________

Toshiko woke up on the floor. This time it wasn't dusty and she was in a cell instead of a mask temple. She knew she hadn't died because her head was still throbbing at the place the ANBU had hit her.

Why did the ANBU kidnap her though?

She didn't get a chance to contemplate on that as the door of the cell opened to reveal an old man with bandages wrapped around his head and one eye. Toshiko recognised him to be Shimura Danzo, the councilor grandmother had told her to stay away from.

Considering her circumstances, grandma was right, but it wasn't like Toshiko could do much about it right now.

"You are Uchiha Toshiko?" Danzo questioned.

"Yes." She answered softly. "Why am I here?"

"My child, you have been fortunate to be chosen to serve Konoha with your body, mind and soul...."

Toshiko tuned out the rest of Danzo's recruitment speech, getting the gist that she, without her consent, had been kidnapped to be enlisted in Danzo's personal army. 

Danzo handed her over to an ANBU, who was supposed to be her personal trainer. By him, she was explained the ridiculous rules of Root (Danzo's personal army), in an emotionless voice. She was assigned the designation 2341 and was expected to forget all about her life prior to Root. She was not supposed to have any emotion, let alone show them. She was supposed to follow orders unquestionably. The list went on and Toshiko decided that she was getting out of there as soon as the opportunity arrived.  
__________________________________________

As it turned out, the opportunity didn't arrive soon.

Toshiko was put in the same room as another kid with orange hair and golden eyes, designated 2310. After much cajoling and persuasion she was able to learn that his name was Yamanaka Fuu and he was taken from his clan compound when he was playing hide and seek with his cousins.

Fuu was shy and reclusive, and was constantly trying to suppress his emotions, even in private, and Toshiko could understand why. The training dished out by Danzo's fake ANBU was brutal.

Toshiko had complained about Tsunade's methods but she had the decency of healing any injury during training. In Root, you were supposed to push through the pain, because missions wouldn't wait for you to feel better. The injuries were healed only towards the end of the training session, and only the ones that could negatively effect your growth as a ninja.

As inhumane as the training was, even she couldn't deny that it was effective. Being thrown into a maze with all your senses bound, was traumatizing, but great for developing chakra sensing abilities. Learning a water jutsu in time being your only defence against painful burns by your trainer's fire jutsu? Worked like a charm. Toshiko was learning at a rate she had never learnt before and learning shinobi arts she never had access to. Everything was great except for the fact that she was essentially in a boot camp for canon fodder, filled with kidnapped children.

She took great care to never reveal her Sharingan to anybody. It was her secret and it protected her. She might not be aware of how much time had passed or what was going on in the world outside of the underground base, but she was resistant to brainwashing because of the crystal clear memories courtesy of her Sharingan. No amount of false memories could compete against them.

Toshiko might be putting on an subversive front, but in her room, her defiance was clear. She cursed Danzo's name, she made plans for when she'd get out of there, she laughed, she cried and most importantly, she remained Uchiha Toshiko, not 2341. Fuu, being her roommate could help but get caught into her rebellious streak. The first time he let out a giggle at one of her particularly creative nickname for Danzo, he looked so alarmed, as if he was caught doing some horrible crime.

But knowing that there was a spark left in him, was enough for Toshiko. Fuu was soon showered with so many passionate speeches, logical arguments and emotions, that he had to concede and join Toshiko's one man rebellion.

Toshiko was waiting for the day she would finally be sent on a mission, so she could finally reveal all of Danzo's secrets to the clan council. It became apparent that she had to stop underestimating her enemies. 

Danzo wasn't stupid enough to send ninjas of untested loyalties into the field, especially when he was running an illegal organization. Every ninja graduating in Root was presented with a seal on their tongue making them incapable of betraying Danzo's secrets. And the graduation test was- killing their roommate.

Toshiko watched Fuu sending her an uneasy glance. His face was impassive but even such a small break in composure in public was a big deal for him. By the time it was her turn to face Fuu, Toshiko had made a decision.

Since Fuu wasn't actively trying to kill her, she had to improvise and feint, which led her directly in front of his tanto swing, slicing her neck. He quickly pulled back, but it was too ate, her jugular was cut and bleeding freely. Fuu maintained a neutral expression but Toshiko could see the anguish in his eyes.

"It's okay." She tried to say, but it came out a gurgled mess. It seemed her trachea was hit too. Atleast, it wouldn't take much longer to die. Drowning in her own blood was really uncomfortable.

The last thing she heard was Danzo congratulating Fuu on passing his test.


	5. 5

Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor, and immediately got up before heading out towards Konoha. She had no intention of being kidnapped by Danzo again.

Soon enough, she ran into Uchiha Shota and along with his colleagues, and ran into his arms crying. Sure, some of it was acting, but a huge part of her just wanted human contact that wasn't Fuu.

Speaking of Fuu.....

"Oji-san, there were ANBU in the forest. They wanted to kidnap me." Toshiko wailed in semblance to an actual five year old.

Shota chuckled at that, obviously not taking her seriously. "Don't worry Toshiko-chan. I'm going to protect you from the evil ANBU. You shouldn't have run into the the forest, though." He scolded.

"But they said that they already kidnapped a Yamanaka called Fuu and Danzo-sama wanted an Uchiha child." She knew she was laying it on a bit thick , but she had to get them to believe her. She wasn't going to leave Fuu and the other children in that place any longer.

Shota stilled at that. He was probably aware of Fuu's missing status because of his job.

"Are you sure that was what you heard, Toshiko-chan?" He pressed.

Toshiko nodded resolutely, drying her tears. "You will save that Yamanaka, won't you, oji-san? You are a police officer."

"I will see what I can do, but I will need your help. I'll be taking you to Fugaku-sama and you would have to tell him what exactly happened in that forest."

Toshiko wasn't exactly thrilled to be visiting Fugaku again, but would do what needed to be done.

Once again, they found Fugaku at the lake, teaching Itachi the great fireball jutsu. Shota took the lead and explained what she had told him prompting Fugaku to dismiss Itachi and turn to her.

"Describe those ANBU." He ordered.

Toshiko shifted a bit, trying to look nervous. " They wore black cloaks and ANBU masks. One of them was very talk and big, and his mask looked like a dog. I didn't see the other one properly" She happily the man who had trained her under the bus. Though she didn't know who had actually kidnapped her, she had a gut feeling that her 'sensei' was the one responsible.

Fugaku nodded. "Very well. We'll look into it."

Toshiko left after that, being dismissed, fully aware that she had kicked an anthill.

___________________________________________

She came to know the consequences of her actions two months later, when the entire compound was abuzz with the news of one of the Hokage's councillors being a bloodline thief. Toshiko wasn't aware of the fact that Danzo hid a Sharingan under his bandages, but it wasn't a shock to her. He would have the Byakugan in the other one if he could get away with it.

Apparently, the Uchiha police force had received an 'anonymous' tip regarding the kidnapping case of child of Yamanaka clan, which pointed towards guilt of a certain councillor, and had therefore shared their suspicions with Yamanaka Inoichi, who along with his allies Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chouza forced the Hokage to confront Danzo about the issue.

The Warhawk didn't take kindly to be accused of kidnapping clan children and tried to attack the Hokage. Thankfully, he was contained before he could do any damage, courtesy of Nara Shikaku and his shadow binding jutsu. Danzo was arrested and a Sharingan was discovered under the bandages covering his right eye.

Further details were classified, so Toshiko didn't know if they had found the children or not, but she remained hopeful.

She entered the academy next year at the age of six, and saw two familiar faces in her class that hadn't been there originally. The last time she had seen them, they were killing each other on Danzo's orders.

The Root children- Katsu and Shinki were very different from the other students. They were socially stunted, highly skilled, and didn't know how to hold back. They lived in the orphanage, as they had before they were kidnapped by Root. They looked like they didn't know how to survive in this environment and Toshiko felt that she had a duty to help them.

That was how, a week into the academy, she ended up with two ducklings who followed her around and mimicked her every move. She understood them in a way that others didn't and they appreciated that, even they had no idea how she knew so much about their circumstances.

Academy was quite different for Toshiko this time around. She actually had friends this time, two of them. Sure, they weren't exactly normal, but she connected to them she hadn't with anyone else except Fuu (who was in a class above hers). Her friends, actually, were what made the classes barable. It was the third time she was going through the material and it was mind numbingly boring. She passed the time alternatively putting Katsu and Shinki in subtle genjutsu and timing how long it took them to recognise it and escape it. Her genjutsu skills improved greatly with this excercise.

Toshiko had been very careful in what level of skill she portrayed to others. She hoped that Itachi, unaware of the fact that she was a medic nin, would attempt to kill her in a way she could heal. Because, even though her skills had improved greatly in Root and she might be able to defeat a genin or even a chunnin if she was lucky, there was no way she could defeat Uchiha Itachi. She wasn't putting herself down or exaggerating his skills. She was being realistic. The guy had killed more than 400 members of the Uchiha clan in one night, half of whom were ninja and more than 30 were jonin level.

This wasn't a fight she could win. But it was one she could lose and come out alive.

On month before the date of Toshiko's graduation exam, on the night she was killed the first time, she waited in her room, preparing herself of what was coming.

Except that it didn't. She stayed up all night and nothing happened. No psychotic mass murdering clan heir weilding a katana broke into her home and tried to kill her.

Toshiko was frenzied with paranoia by the time the sun rose. She hadn't slept a wink the whole night and all types of wild theories were running around her head. Had Itachi somehow come back in time too? If so, what was he planning?

She went out of the house to see if something had heard when she spotted Itachi. He was going towards the clan training grounds with Sasuke and Shisui (hadn't he died on a mission or something by now). Toshiko stood there for a moment and actually gaped at the three of them, because Itachi was actually laughing, probably at something Shisui said. It wasn't sinister laughter either, it was a genuine laugh filled with joy, like a normal person.

What had changed? Did her interference with Danzo and Root somehow prevent Itachi's psychotic break? Or maybe it was because his friend Shisui was somehow still alive and was available to temper his insanity?

Toshiko was reminder that she was staring when Shisui turned to her and sent a saucy wink. She would have done something witty if she wasn't half asleep. Instead she just walked away, her face red.  
___________________________________________

Toshiko graduated with average scores she had hoped for in her first life. But a life in genin corps didn't appeal to her as it initially did, not after having seen all the adventures that she had. Unfortunately, Hyuuga Setsuna, the jonin sensei assigned to her and two giggling kunoichi that were her teammates, didn't want to be weighed down by three little girls and failed them without even giving then a farce of a test. 

Toshiko didn't waste much time in signing up for the hospital again. There she met another genin, Yakushi Kabuto, who was the adopted son of the hospital director. There was something about him that striked her odd, but nothing seemed out of order when observed.

Toshiko was hailed a prodigy comparable to Tsunade-sama, when she didn't bother hiding her skills. She tried, she really did, but with the hospital being understaffed, and the non critical patients left to heal the normal way, she couldn't justify concealing her expertise. 

Almost a year into her stint at the hospital, she was engrossed healing Hatake Kakashi's femur (while non critical, he was notorious for not taking the recommended bed rest, which could cause malunion of the bone, thus the chakra healing), when Kabuto entered the room surprising both her and Hatake.

"Toshiko-san..... Oh, Sorry. I wasn't aware you'd be healing bone." Kabuto spoke, with both his hand raised, trying to appear non threatening. Aware that Hatake had gone completely still under her palm, Toshiko reluctantly withdrew. She wasn't going heal much if he wasn't comfortable enough to relax. Treating ANBU was a tricky buisness.

"Don't worry, I was done anyway." She said, exiting the room. "You needed something?"

"Yes, Akira-sensei is looking for you."

"Thanks. Its probably about yesterday's discharge papers." She started walking away.

"Congratulations, by the way." Kabuto called out. "You know, for activating your Sharingan."

Toshiko wasn't proud of the fact that she froze. "What do you mean? I haven't activated my Sharingan."

"Oh, must be a trick of light." He chuckled before walking away.

Toshiko couldn't quite make herself relax.

___________________________________________

Two weeks later, Toshiko found herself bound with rope and chakra suppressors, blindfolded, set up against a tree and feeling the after effects of the poison that was most likely was in coffee Kabuto had given her during the night shift and responsible for landing her in this situation. 

That little rat! She remembered where she had seen him before. He was the grey haired man with Orochimaru, when he had come to Tsunade to get his arms healed. Naruto had even called him 'Kabuto'.

How could she have been so stupid?

She quickly started filtering the poison out of her bloodstream, using what little chakra she could. It wouldn't do to be disoriented when her kidnapper finally deigned her with his presence.

"Orochimaru-sama." Whimpered an unfamiliar voice, and Toshiko cursed internally. "I've brought the package Kabuto delivered."

"We'll done, Mizuki." Toshiko had no problem recognising Orochimaru's slimy voice. "Let's see if she survives. I hope she does. A three tomoe Sharingan would be very helpful in learning jutsu."

A moment later, she felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck and knew no more.  
___________________________________________

She survived.

It wasn't a good thing.

Orochimaru's chakra was wrapped with hers, an oily monstrous thing. Toshiko had always believed chakra to be nature's gift to man and couldn't be evil, but her faith was being shaken as Orochimaru's burning chakra coursed through her body.

"You could have made her a puppet." Orochimaru's red haired friend commented, as Toshiko tried to control her rage, which seemed to bolster the snake's chakra.

"I'm afraid her Sharingan would be useless to me if I did that Sasori-kun." Orochimaru answered. He was wearing the same weird cloak as Sasori, black with red clouds. 

"It doesn't seem to be much use to you now." The redhead countered, monotonously.

Orochimaru's smile turned sinister. "We all have our own forms of immortality, Sasori-kun."

Toshiko didn't get to hear Sasori's witty reply to that remark as Orochimaru stiffened before bolting up, "Incoming."

Still bound, Toshiko scrambled to the corner of the room. A few seconds, five shinobi wearing Konoha ANBU uniform entered the hideout.

For a few seconds no one moved to fight, assessing the opposite side, before Orochimaru said, "We will retreat."

Sasori apparently deferring to his partner's judgement of Konoha shinobi, chose to obey. The next moment, Toshiko was left alone with the ANBU. She relaxed a bit when she recognised one of them in the dog mask as Hatake Kakashi. No one in Konoha had gravity defying silver hair as his.

"Crow. Release the chakra suppression seal." He ordered.

An ANBU with long black hair, whose mask looked nothing like a crow, moved to obey. Because of the suppression seals, he was a foot away from Toshiko when she recognised his chakra, and the curse mark flared up. He paused a bit before going ahead and removing the suppressors.

Thr moment they were off, Toshiko, fueled by burning rage, drove a chakra scalpel through his heart. The next second, something hit her at he back of her head and she lost consciousness.  
___________________________________________

Toshiko woke up bound to a chair, in a cell. It took a moment for her to remember what had happened. Curiously, Orochimaru's curse mark only throbbed a bit before settling down. 

The door of the cell opened to reveal Yamanaka Inoichi entering with a grim look on his face. She was in T and I then, most likely for attacking an ANBU, who was incidentally the Uchiha heir.

"Uchiha Toshiko, are you aware of the reason for your detainment?" He started.

"Yes, I attacked an ANBU." There was no point in saying she didn't mean to.

"The ANBU in question is dead. Cause of death- ruptured heart because of the chakra scalpel four witnesses have admitted you were responsible for. His real name, which can be revealed since he is dead, was Uchiha Itachi, the heir of your clan."

Toshiko took a minute to comprehend that. Uchiha Itachi was dead. At her hand. Somehow, she didn't feel any satisfaction from that news, just numbness.

"It doesn't need to be said that Uchiha clan had withdrew all their protections from you. You are facing charges of murder of a clan heir and conspiracy with a traitor." Yamanaka-sama continued.

"On the first charge, my only defence is I wasn't in my right mind. The second charge is utter bullshit. I was kidnapped from Konoha on Orochimaru's order. He gave me this disgusting hickey that leaks evil chakra to make my body more susceptible to his possession." Toshiko spat out.

"How did he kidnap you?" He asked, face impassive.

"Yakushi Kabuto. He gave me a coffee during the night shift. I passed out soon after. Someone named Mizuki delivered me to Orochimaru."

Yamanaka-sama sighed. "You'll most likely be executed, Toshiko-san. Fugaku is pushing for it with all his political might. The charges of conspiracy were out forward by him, which everyone knows are false. The murder charges however..... Orochimaru had left behind an apprentice in the village when he left. She has a curse mark like yours, and she has never been accused of killing an ally. There are two possibilities- either the mark doesn't affect your free will and you are completely responsible for the murder, or it does affect you and we'll have a ninja compromised to Orochimaru inside the village." His tone was sombre.

Toshiko simple nodded. She wasn't afraid of death at this point.

"How did they find me?" She asked.

"You were noticed missing by your friend Shinki the day after your night shift at the hospital."

That's right. It was her birthday that day. Shinki and Katsu might have come to visit. Suddenly, she remembered the two muted familiar signatures she had sensed when the ANBU had come to rescue her.

"They were there, weren't they? They were his teammates." She asked, dreading the answer.

Yamanaka-sama's silence was as good as confirmation.

Great. She had committed the crime she was going to be executed for in front of her friends. She hoped they wouldn't react poorly to her death. Who was she kidding? Of course, they would react poorly.

"I would sign a confession that I killed Uchiha Itachi on my own violation, when I got a chance, because I have always been jealous of him for being a prodigy." She told her interrogator.

"That would stop issues being raised on Anko-san being compromised." He mused. "Why though? It's clearly not true."

Toshiko shrugged. "I have my reasons." She didn't want her friends to die for turning against Konoha because of her. "How am I going to die?"

"How do you prefer?"

"Anything's fine. I just want it to be quick."

Uchiha Toshiko died at the age of 14, by arrhythmia induced by lightening chakra channelled into her heart by Hatake Kakashi, who probably wasn't happy with her for killing his teammate right in front of him, because of petty jealously.


	6. 6

Uchiha Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor.

The first thing she did was access her chakra and sit there for a few moments just circulating her chakra around the body, enjoy the feel of it being pure and unadulterated.

The second thing she did was to repeat exactly what she had done in the last loop to get Danzo arrested. It had worked and if it ain't broke.....

The third thing she did was track down Uchiha Itachi to a training ground, and creepily observe him training while hiding in a tree. He was alive, breathing, training. Not dead. His heart was still beating, chakra still flowing.

"What are you doing here, Toshiko-san?" Toshiko was proud of herself for not jumping a foot in air as Uchiha Itachi spoke from the tree behind her. There was another Itachi (probably a clone) practicing kunai throwing on the ground.

"Observing you." Toshiko answered, unashamedly. What was the point, she was already caught.

"Why are you observing me?" Itachi asked unperturbed.

"You know what? I haven't got a clue." It was true enough. He might have been her first kill in a fit of evil chakra induced madness, but she had been training as a ninja during most of all her lives. Killing was almost a norm. Why was it making her so uncomfortable?

A frown formed over Itachi's chibi face. "Were you really going to be kidnapped by ANBU?"

"Yup." She even was kidnapped by them at one point.

"I don't think ANBU are stupid enough to loudly talk about there plans in hearing range of their target."

That was a good point. "Maybe they were fake ANBU." They definitely were, but they were better than the regular ANBU, not stupider. 

She wondered why her made up story full of holes was taken seriously by Fugaku and others. Maybe because it contained information she had no plausible way of knowing otherwise?

Chibi Itachi's face lit up with comprehension. "That is why Outo-san is so worried. Someone is impersonating village security and committing crimes in their guise."

Toshiko nodded. "It is a worrying matter."

She went home late in the evening, wondering how the hell did she ended up discussing village security with her nemesis for four hours.

The next day, Toshiko was leaving the clan compound to buy groceries when Itachi insistent on accompanying her, and offered condolences for her grandmother's death. Somehow, she didn't find it in herself to rebuff him.

This continued in a similar vein and a month later, Toshiko was pulling weeds in her garden, helped by the Uchiha heir, listening to how cute Sasuke was and how weird other kids at the academy were.

Somehow she had become Uchiha Itachi's friend.

"What about Izumi-san? She is in your class, isn't she?" Toshiko hated throwing the other girl under the bus, but this was getting beyond weird. Besides, Izumi had a mountain-sized crush on Itachi. She would probably thank Toshiko for her intervention.

"She acts weird around me too." Itachi sighed. "Only you and Shisui-san act normal with me."

Since Toshiko had collectively lived more than fifty years and Shisui was a genius was veteran, how they acted probably wasn't what would be considered 'normal'. Toshiko decided not to mention that.

"Well, you know how kids are." She shrugged.

Itachi stared at her. "You are a year younger than them."

Toshiko shrugged again.

Her bizzare friendship with Itachi came with a side package of acquaintance with Uchiha Shisui, who was the most annoying individual she had ever met.

"Wow, Itachi-kun. You really move fast, don't you? Just six years old and already have a cute girlfriend." He gushed the first time he saw her and Itachi training together.

Itachi sighed. "Toshiko-san is not my girlfriend. We are friends."

"But you didn't deny she is cute." Shisui sing-songed.

Itachi opened his mouth to reply, but Toshiko beat him to it. "What's there to deny? I'm very cute." She really was. Bud black eyes, chubby cheeks, pale skin- she really had won the genetic lottery.

Shisui turned to her looking as if Christmas had come early. "What about Itachi, then? Do you think he's cute?"

Toshiko looked at Itachi to actually see him blushing. He was pretty cute. Too bad he wouldn't stay that way.

"He's fine." She answered, nonchalantly.

"Would you agree to marry him then?" The annoying nuisance asked.

Toshiko glared at him. "Of course not." She wanted to say 'even if he was the last person in world', but didn't want to hurt the kids feelings. She didn't know what might set him off.

"Why not?" Shisui frowned

"Because I'm five. I like to keep my options open." 

After that, Shisui had also become a persistent presence in her along with Itachi, only he was more annoying. Over the years, both of them sort of grew on her, like a fungus. She didn't have any other friends this time around. She was put in a different class than Shinki and Katsu, when she started the academy, because she didn't hold back much in the placement tests. There were three former Root recruits in her class, and they were already sort of adopted by the Yamanaka in the class.

While, Toshiko managed in not skipping any years, she was still the top student in her year. There was just no point in trying to pass as unremarkable when you regularly sparred with the person you wish to hide your skills from. Itachi was a bit jealous that she had a fully matured Sharingan (it had activated during one of their more intense spars), while he hadn't even activated his. Jealously didn't last when he activated it seeing his teammate died in front of him. 

Itachi had always been a distant figure to Toshiko in all her lives. But actually getting to know him was quite an experience. He was a true genius, a once in a generation kind. Even with Toshiko having more than fifty years of experience over him, she was sure that Itachi was more skilled in the shinobi arts. He even got his Sharingan to three tomoe in one year while it had taken Toshiko three deaths to get to that point.

His nature, however, was quite gentle and polite. He was never arrogant about his skills. His modesty, however, never turned to self depreciation. The way he talked about his brother, Toshiko knew he was entirely devoted. His genuine anguish at his teammates death was also something that threw her off. As time passed, Toshiko couldn't quite understand how this kid could massacre his own clan for no reason. Even if he went mad, there had to be some kind of sign in his behaviour that could point towards the tendency.

Toshiko knew Itachi wasn't pretending either. Sure, some things were hard to swallow, like his favourite word being peace and his dream of ending the era of wars in the elemental nations, but the day he showed her his favourite spot in Konoha, over the Hokage mountain, overlooking the the entire village, his pride and love for Konoha was evident in his eyes. 

Something must have changed drastically to lead him to such violence. But what? 

Itachi joined the ANBU when he was eleven. It was supposed to be a secret, but Fugaku apparently didn't get the memo and basically announced it to the clan. Itachi was starting to look stressed out and Toshiko was getting worried.

"It's obvious that something is bothering you. Why do you continue to insist that you're fine?" She cornered him one day, after weeks of failed attempts.

"Because I am fine, Toshiko-chan. It's nothing to worry about." Itachi answered, his voice dripping with sincerity. Toshiko might have believed him, if she wasn't aware of extraordinary lying skills.

"That's bullshit. I thought we were friends. How am I supposed to help you if you don't even trust me enough to tell me what's wrong?" She knew it was a low blow as Itachi regarded their friendship with high esteem. But, she would do anything to prevent this sweet, caring version of Itachi into a mass murdering psychopath.

She could see Itachi struggle with himself mentally, before relenting. "You have to promise to keep this to yourself." He insisted.

"I promise." Toshiko was quick to agree.

Itachi sighed, suddenly looking much older than eleven. "The clan is planning a coup."

What.

"A what?" This couldn't be happening. "Are they stupid or suicidal?"

"Otou-san wished for me to spy on the village for the clan." He continued.

Suddenly, as if a veil had been lifted, pieces began to fit together in Toshiko's mind.

"But you wouldn't do that." She muttered.

"I'm reporting to Hokage-sama and his council." Itachi confirmed.

"What are they planning to do about it? Genocide?" Her voice reached a hysterical pitch.

"You don't have to worry about it. Shisui has a plan, in case nothing else works." Itachi tried to reassure her. "I can't tell you the details, but I'm sure it won't fail.

Toshiko nodded distractedly, before leaving.

Obviously the plan worked. That was the reason there was no massacre in the last loop. The other times, Danzo might have had something to do with Shisui's death, making him unable to form this mysterious plan. Since the last loop, Toshiko had neutralised Danzo in the beginning by exposing him and Root, therefore Shisui had been left alive to save the clan. 

Toshiko knew why the clan would be desperate enough for this suicidal move. After the Kyuubi attack, the Uchiha had been basically quarantined away on the outskirts of the village. They were ostracized by civilians due to rumours of their involvement with the attack. Promotions were unjustly denied, and genin rarely passed their jonin-sensei's test, forcing them to work with the Uchiha military police, leading to less bonds with other Konoha ninja. 

Uchiha were one of the founding clans of Konoha. Being reduced to outcasts in their own village obviously didn't sit well with them. That didn't mean that Toshiko was fine with her clan essentially signing her death warrant along with dozens of other children.

Shisui's plan, whatever it was, apparently worked, because the night of the massacre came and without any incident, except for Toshiko staying awake all night.

A week later she passed the graduation exams with good scores, hopeful to be placed in a good team. Returning home, Toshiko decided to treat Shisui to dinner (Itachi being out on a mission), celebrating her graduation. She went towards Yakiniku Q (her favourite restaurant), intensity to buy grilled pork. Her plans, however, were derailed due to a commotion in front of the restaurant. There grown men were beating the stuff out of a seven year old kid as the cloud watched.

At that moment, Toshiko saw red. She was well aware of the identity of the Kyuubi jinchuriki. Based on previous meetings, she thought he was unnecessary loud and annoying. But that didn't give anyone the right to hit the kid, especially with this kind of brutality.

When Toshiko entered the fray, it was over in seconds. She was a trained ninja, while the three men, though larger, were just civilians. Soon enough, she had all three of them on the ground, groaning in pain. 

Babies. She barely even hit them.

"Wow, Nee-chan. You're so awesome." The blonde haired kid, shouted at her, tugging her sleeves. He gave her a beaming smile so bright that she had to glance sway. Before she could say anything though, two ANBU appeared in front of them.

"Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san. The Hokage has summoned both of you to his office." One of them spoke in a monotonous voice, while the other, without waiting for their permission, grabbed them and performed a shunshin.

The next moment, Toshiko and Naruto were in the Hokage office, with the Sandaime, sitting behind his desk directly across them.

"Hokage-sama." Toshiko dipped into a bow, while Naruto shouted, "Jiji!"

"Naruto-kun, Toshiko-kun." The wisened old man began. "I've been told there was an incident in the market."

Seeing Naruto's expression drop, Toshiko decided to answer herself. "There were three adults assaulting Naruto-kun, Hokage-sama."

"Yeah, they were really mean, jiji. I didn't even do anything and they just came over and accused me of stealing and hit me. Then, nee-chan came and beat them all up. She was really cool." Naruto piped up.

The Hokage blew up smoke from his pipe. "I see. Toshiko-kun, are you aware that ninja aren't allowed to attack civilians?"

Toshiko opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn't know how to respond to that statement. It was true that there were harsh laws in Konoha to prevent ninjas from abusing their power, but surely this wasn't the case they could be applied to? They were beating up a child, for god's sake.

"Hey, old man! That's not fair. Toshiko-neechan didn't do anything wrong." The said child protested on Toshiko's behalf.

"Naruto, don't think you're out of the woods. Iruka told me you set up paint bombs in your classroom. Go to the academy and clean it up now, if you want to have a chance at graduation." The Hokage scolded. "Toshiko-kun, your punishment will be decided later. You are free to go. Do think about why you are going to be punished."

Toshiko nodded mechanically, before bidding the Hokage farewell and walking out of the room.

The incident, while insignificant in the grand scheme of things, opened Toshiko's eyes to the reality that she had been ignoring for quite a while. Konoha was not the place she had thought it to be. Konoha was not the 'good' ninja village. It sanctioned the genocidal of clans, including it's children, by a thirteen year old of the same clan. It allowed someone to be charged of murder and treason, and executed, only because it was convenient. It allowed a entire clan to be ostracized and a seven year old to be abused by the entire village, because people had to place the blame of the lives lost during Kyuubi attack somewhere, and the administration didn't want to take it.

Toshiko had lost her life, two times at Itachi's hand and another time at Kakashi's, simply because of the fact that if she lived, it would be inconvenient to the administration. She had lost her life to the Hokage's student and to his councillor. She would be blind to not notice a pattern there.

Toshiko had never met the Hokage before, but now she realised that she didn't want to give her loyalty to him.

Suddenly determined, Toshiko rushed to her house and started packing all that she could take, into a sealing scroll. 

"Ah, Toshiko-chan, you're back. How'd it go?" She jumped a bit as Shisui entered the house, his eyes narrowing as he saw her packing. "Going somewhere?"

Toshiko tried to think up an excuse that didn't sound completely ridiculous and came up blank.

"Well?"

"I'm leaving." She bit out.

"Leaving? What do you mean?" Shisui asked, baffled.

"I don't want to be a Konoha shinobi."

A beat.

"Are you out of your mind? I know Itachi told you about the coup. Do you have any idea what your desertion could lead to?" She had never seen Shisui be this angry before.

"I'm a genin. What would it matter?"

Shisui shook his head. "It would. Uchiha clan is in pretty thin ice, right now. And don't even get me started on your sudden wish to become a missing nin."

"I don't want to become a missing nin. I just can't be loyal to the Sandaime." Toshiko countered, before all of a sudden her limbs were locked in position. "What are you doing?"

"It's for your own good." Shisui answered, his Sharingan spinning fast to form a unique patterned structure. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Toshiko woke up bright and early the next morning, eager to start her first day as the kunoichi of Konoha. 

She was a bit disappointed when placed in Genin Corps without even a chance at a Jonin Squad, as a punishment for her behaviour the previous evening, but she accepted it with grace. The Hokage was right to punish her for attacking Konoha civilians, and she was a loyal and hardworking kunoichi. She would do her best to serve Konoha no matter where she was placed.

When Itachi returned from his mission a week later, Toshiko had already immersed herself in mission as a genin corp. They weren't terribly exciting, but we're ultimately to the benifit of Konoha, so she had no complaints.

"Weren't you at the top of your class?" Itachi interupted her as she told him about her latest mission, since hers wasn't as classified as his. Not that she would ever share classified information without proper approval.

"I did attack civilians though. Maybe the Hokage thought I wasn't to be trusted with more power." She shrugged. It wasn't up to her to question the Hokage's decision.

"You were protecting Naruto-kun." He protested. "Do you seriously think that placing you in Genin corps, and essentially ruining your career is appropriate punishment for protecting a little kid. Didn't you ask Hokage-sama to reconsider?"

"I'm a loyal kunoichi of Konoha. I'm supposed to follow my Hokage's orders, not question them." The line of questioning was making Toshiko uncomfortable. She turned to Itachi to tell him so, to find him observing her with his Sharingan.

"What's wrong?"

He turned of his Sharingan before answering, his voice carefully controlled. "Shisui has put you in a genjutsu."

Toshiko flared her chakra on instinct. "No, he hasn't. I haven't even seen him recently."

"Maybe we should go and see him now." The anger in his voice was a longer controlled. Toshiko didn't get a chance to answer as Itachi basically pulled her all the way to Shisui's house.

Shisui was quick to open his door. "Itachi, you're back. And Toshiko, good to see you too." He chuckled awkwardly. Okay, something was definitely wrong.

"May we enter?" Itachi asked politely.

Shisui let them in, looking nervous. He right to be wary, because as soon as they were in, Itachi threw a kunai at him which he barely dodged.

"Hey, that could have hit my eye." He protested.

"It wouldn't have been a loss." Itachi answered coldly. "Considering, that you have started using it on your friends now."

"I had to! She was going to become a missing nin."

"What?"

Toshiko cleared her throat. "Would either of you be kind enough to explained to me what exactly is going on?"

The boys shared a look and Shisui came forward. He activated his Sharingan which turned into a squared pattern. It reminded Toshiko if something, but she ignored it.

"This is my Mangekyou Sharingan. It is activated when you see someone you care about die, and blame yourself for their death. This one gives me the power of Kotoamatsukami, a near undetectable genjutsu which basically hypnotises the person I use it on." He explained.

"What does it have to do with me? Itachi said you.... Wait, did you use it on me?" That couldn't be true.

To her surprise, Shisui nodded guiltily. "I found you after your graduation exams, packing away all your stuff. You said you were leaving and didn't wish to give your loyalty to the Sandaime."

"That would set you off." Itachi was frowning.

"It did. I had no idea what happened...."

"But why would I say that?" Toshiko interupted Shisui. "I'm loyal to Konoha and the Hokage."

They exchanged another look. Toshiko was starting to get really annoyed at that.

"You aren't loyal to Konoha, Toshiko-chan. You think you are because of Shisui's genjutsu." Itachi explained.

"But that doesn't make sense. I can't think of any reason that would make me want to become a missing nin."

"That's just how the genjutsu works. It makes your mind work against you." It was Shisui who answered.

"It think this is a misunderstanding. You must have misunderstood what I was saying." She insisted.

"I don't think I did."

"Can you remove the genjutsu? That would clear things up. And free Toshiko from your brainwashing." Itachi spoke up.

Shisui nodded. "I can try. I haven't done it before, but I should be able to."

That didn't exactly fill her with confidence, but she persevered.

Shisui took Toshiko's chin in one hand and looked deep into her eyes. His eyes, though pretty at first glance, seemed a bit creepy when they stared into your soul. Itachi took her hand in his, and squeezed it a bit to provide reassurance.

The next moment, Toshiko was hit by excruciating pain, feeling as if her brain itself was liquifying. She felt something dripping from her nose and heard a shout of her name.

Itachi was standing in front of her plunging a sword into her chest. No, he was cutting of her head. Toshiko blinked, Itachi was there, holding her. She had probably fallen down. There was someone's hand on her head, probably Shisui's.

Toshiko blinked. She saw Itachi again, realising her from restraints, when she plunged a chakra scalpel into his heart. She had killed him.

Toshiko blinked again. Everything was blurry. The last thing she saw was Itachi's three tomoe Sharingan turning into the shape of a shuriken.


	7. 7

Uchiha Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor, gasping for breath, and cursing to the existence of a certain curly haired Uchiha.

She felt so violated, looking back at the week she spent under his genjutsu, trapped in her own mind without any control of her body, as if possessed by another entity. Perhaps it was a defence mechanism that he couldn't reverse the genjutsu without liquifying her brain. If she had survived, she would have killed Shisui with her bare hands.

She understood now what the mysterious 'plan' had been. Shisui had basically brainwashed the rebellious clan members to be loyal to Konoha. It said something about the village that homicide and brainwashing were the only two options to settle an internal dispute.

Toshiko took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but something had permanently changed about how she felt about Konoha. The familiar chakra of Hashirama trees surrounding her didn't feel warm and welcome as it did, but oppressive and smouthering. 

Unable to stay there anymore, she fled. Not caring where she was going, just away from the suffocating chakra. Toshiko travelled in some random direction for what felt like days, but clearly couldn't be as she hadn't dropped from exhaustion, hunger or thirst. She was probably hundreds of miles away from Konoha, (judging by the snow covered landscape in the middle of summer), when she finally deigned to stop.

It was then that she finally succumbed to tears. She felt betrayed. Despite her initial misgivings, she had considered Shisui a friend, had started trusting him, and he had betrayed her in such a fundamental manner. He had taken away her sense of self. She didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive that.

Lost in her turmoil, Toshiko didn't notice anyone approaching her until they spoke, "Where are your parents child?"

She looked up to see an old man dressed in samurai armour standing two feet away from her, looking at her with concern.

"Dead." She answered his question, momentarily unconcerned with his proximity.

He frowned. "What is your name?"

"Uchiha Toshiko." She couldn't even muster up the energy to think of a false name.

"You are a far way from home." The old man observed.

"I don't have a home." Toshiko bit out.

The old man frowned at her contemplatively for some time.

"Everyone has a home, child. But until you find yours, you are welcome in mine." He said before walking away in the snow.

Toshiko stared at him for a while, wondering why he would offer her his home, and then, throwing caution to the wind, she ended up following him.

Toshiko was a bit apprehensive at seeing dozens of samurai stationed outside his house, but everything cleared up when the old man introduced himself as Mifune, leader of the samurai of Tetsu no kuni.

It made sense, she supposed. She had already tried the shinobi and civilian lifestyles before becoming disillusioned with them. Perhaps it was time to become a samurai.

Life in the Land of Iron was very different from Konoha. The main difference was the contrasting morals of samurai and shinobi. Shinobi are expected to lie, steal, manipulate and murder. Samurai, however, lived by an honor that prohibited all of those. 

The samurai only used chakra for body augmentation and 'ninshu'. And that was a completely different can of worms. Ninshu referred to use of chakra to empathize with people and prevent suffering. The mistake of comparing ninshu to ninjutsu lead to a comprehensive lecture on how shinobi had completely adulterated chakra usage and how ninjutsu is an abomination that shouldn't even be mentioned in the land of iron.

Toshiko didn't take much time to adjust to the life of samurai, especially since she wanted to leave behind everything associated with Konoha. She had become Mifune's ward and was assigned a teacher named Yoshiteru for tutelage in the ways of samurai.

Considering that she wasn't actually five years old and had actually trained in chakra augmentation with Tsunade for years, she was quickly advanced to Kenjutsu classes. Toshiko worked hard, training day and night, if only to be exhausted enough to sleep without nightmares. She felt numb most of the time, as if she had lost a part of herself. Stray thoughts of Fu, Shinki and Katsu in Root training and the massacre of the Uchiha clan occasionally ventured into her mind, but she couldn't muster up the motivation to care about it.

Toshiko was twelve when Mifune-sama invited her to his study and gently broke the news of the Uchiha massacre. The numbness left for moment as she was assaulted with feelings of guilt and distress, before returning, making her feel empty and wrung out.

Mifune-sama eyed her with sympathy. "You have progressed remarkably well in Kenjutsu, be it because of your natural genius or unenviable work ethic. I believe it is time for you to take the oath of samurai."

Toshiko knelt on one knee, bowing down. "I would be honoured, Mifune-sama."

"Very well. Do you, Uchiha Toshiko, swear on your life to use your gift of chakra to protect and nourish, and never harm the people of the elemental nations?"

"I do." Toshiko answered, confused. That was not the regular samurai oath.

Mifune-sama smiled at her inquiring expression. "You are special, Toshiko-chan. Your oath is supposed to be special. I, Mifune, Head Samurai, declare you a samurai of Land of Iron. May you be a credit to the Land."

Toshiko stood upand exited the room after bowing low. It was after many years that she felt a sense of purpose beyond getting stronger. She was a samurai of Land of Iron. She would protect its people with all her strength.

And that was what she did. Due to the isolation of Tetsu no kuni, there were considerably less threats in the land compared to the other elemental countries, but they were still there. Bandits, natural disasters, occasionally missing-nin straying in to try their luck against samurai- the civilians of Land of Iron still feared those. Over the years, Toshiko built a reputation of going above and beyond her duty to help the civilians. She became to be revered by the people and respected by the samurai. She didn't have any friends though. She wasn't going to be touching that with a ten foot pole, any time soon.

Slowly but surely, Toshiko felt that she was healing. She was gradually getting back her sense of self that she was afraid had been lost forever. Ofcourse that was when the Kage Summit happened.

"Kage Summit are requested to negotiate war treaties. Why is one happening now? There hasn't been any war for more than a decade." Toshiko asked.

"The Raikage is concerned about Akatsuki. It is an organisation of S ranked nuke-nin and has been alleged to be capturing jinchiruchi." Mifune-sama answered patiently.

"Akatsuki. Red dawn. Who are the members?" The image of Orochimaru and Sasori wearing black cloaks with red clouds came to her mind.

"The current members are unknown. Though, since Uchiha Itachi was a known members, we can guess that the strength of others is comparable."

Toshiko was about to reply when noticed the past tense. "What do you mean 'Uchiha Itachi was a known member'? Has he left?"

"He's dead. He was killed by Uchiha Sasuke a month ago." He replied. "I was under the impression that you were aware."

"I wasn't." Toshiko said, mechanically. "I'll go see to the preparations."

Itachi was dead. Killed by his little brother. She didn't know what to feel about that. Itachi had been her friend. Itachi tried to help her when he discovered that she was brainwashed. Itachi developed the Mangekyou Sharingan at her death.

But this Itachi wasn't him. He had never met Toshiko. He wouldn't have hesitated to kill her if they ever crossed paths. This Itachi had murdered every member of the clan he had grown up in, save his little brother. This Itachi had spent many years in a criminal organization (probably undercover), and had committed countless crimes. Perhaps death was a relief to him. It would have been to the Itachi she had known, if he been in this situation.

Toshiko forcibly shoved those thoughts off and busied herself in the security preparations. She had left Konoha behind. There was no use in mulling over this.

Soon enough the Kages started arriving. But instead of Tsunade, Toshiko was surprised to see Danzo representing Konoha as the Hokage. The Godaime had supposedly fallen in a coma after the leader of Akatsuki attacked and essentially destroyed Konoha.

The summit started and was a clusterfuck from the beginning. The Five Kage began to argue about ideologies and whose fault it was that Akatsuki became so powerful. Toshiko was incredulous when Danzo revealed that Uchiha Madara was the real leader of Akatsuki, since he would be more than a hundred years old even if he was still alive. 

She couldn't believe her eyes when Mifune-sama supported Danzo by suggesting that the Five Great Nations unite against Akatsuki under Danzo's leadership.

She quickly activated her Sharingan to see that Danzo was using a genjutsu on the Head Samurai. She had a feeling she knew which genjutsu it was, considering she had experienced it first hand.

The Mizukage's bodyguard, Ao, apparently had a Byakugan and was able to expose Danzo before she could. She was ready skewer the bandaged bastard with her sword when a wierd plant thing just phased into the room announcing that Uchiha Sasuke was near. This threw the Raikage into a fit of rage since apparently Sasuke was responsible for capturing his brother for the Akatsuki. In the resulting commotion, Danzo disappeared.

Oh no, he was not getting away this easily. Not after using that jutsu on Mifune-sama.

Toshiko ignored Sasuke's arrival and his resulting clash with the Kages and chose gave chase to Danzo, along with Yoshiteru and his squad.

They didn't get far before they were intercepted by what appeared to be Konoha ANBU. Toshiko knew from past experience that they were Root.

They were skilled fighters. The samurai were able to keep up with them but every second spent fighting gave Danzo the opportunity to flee further, which was their goal. The samurai code of honour was working against them and the Root members definitely didn't have hesitation in using dirty tricks. Ten minutes later, Toshiko lost her patience and used the Great Fireball jutsu to distract them. Not expecting a samurai to use ninjutsu, they were caught off gaurd and Toshiko was able to use the opportunity to stab one of them (apparently the leader) in the chest, while the others escaped. Toshiko was about to follow when she was stopped short by the call of her name.

Yoshiteru-sensei was the one who had called her and was looking at her with disappointment. "Toshiko-kun, do you intend to see the face of the opponent you killed to honour their life, or I have completely failed in teaching you the samurai code?"

The chastisement rankled when Danzo and Root members were getting further away with each wasted moment. But Toshiko acquiesced. It would take less time than arguing.

All thoughts of following Danzo left her mind when she removed the Root member's mask. The lifeless eyes of her first friend stared back at her.

Yamanaka Fuu. She had killed Fuu.

Toshiko was distantly aware of falling to her knees. She felt a sharp pain in her eyes and tears rolling down her cheeks. She absently wiped them, only to realise that it was blood.

"Toshiko-kun, what is it?" Yoshiteru's tone was concerned.

The bells of town centre began to ring before Toshiko could answer, recalling the samurai.

Apparently, Uchiha Madara had arrived after Danzo's flight declaring the fourth shinobi war against the Five Great Nations if they failed to deliver the remaining jinchuriki. Mifune-sama had decided that the samurai would also be participating in this war against a threat to the elemental nations. The Land of Iron was going to war. Toshiko's grief had to be put on the backburner.

With all the preparations and planning Toshiko rarely got any opportunity to train. While she instinctively knew that her newly acquired Mangekyou Sharingan gave her the ability of Kamui, she never got the chance to practice it. It was a very useful ability, she had to admit, no matter how it was acquired. It basically gave her access to another dimension and ability to teleport.

Mifune-sama decided to send Toshiko to a hidden base to protect the remaining jinchuriki- Naruto and Killer B. She was a bit disappointed to not be participating in the only war in history in which all five great nations were allied, but did not protest. The jinchuriki were the whole point of the war.

Toshiko set out sail to an island in Kumo along with Naruto, and three other Konoha ninja- Yamato, Gai and Aoba. Seeing Naruto again, now as a sixteen year old teenager, but still as loud and annoying as ever, Toshiko realised that this was the longest she had ever lived.

She apparently jinxed herself with the thought as a soon enough they were attacked by a giant octopus. She watched in disbelief as Naruto became convinced that it the octopus that was supposed to help him become stronger according to the great toad sage. The octopus didn't share that opinion as it grabbed Naruto in one of its arm, doing its best to kill him.

Toshiko shook herself out of her stupor. It was her job to protect the jinchuriki, no matter how stupid they acted. As if by instinct, she activated her Mangekyou Sharingan for the first time and teleported the giant arm holding Naruto to the Kamui dimension, setting him free.

"Nee-chan, you have the Sharingan!! Are you an Uchiha? Are you related to Sasuke-teme? Hey, are you related to Kakashi-sensei? Your power is the same as his." Toshiko realised her mistake as the brat started pestering her with questions.

Thankfully, they were interupted by the arrival of Killer B, who had seen the giant octopus attack their ship. She felt relief for a second before the man started to rap.

Toshiko sweat dropped. Were all the jinchuriki this weird?

Naruto immediately asked B to train him and was refused immediately. Toshiko wished she hadn't seen the subsequent pleading and cajoling, but she had, unfortunately, with her Sharingan. The Harem no jutsu was forever burned in her brain.

Eventually B agreed to train Naruto and Toshiko reverted to her own training. Kamui could be very powerful if she learned to use it correctly. The teleportation wasn't instantaneous like the fourth Hokage's hiraishin, but accidently Toshiko discovered that she could be subsequently present in the Kamui dimension and the real dimension, making her intangible and immune to attacks. The only downside was that her attacks would also be useless in that situation. The trick would be to perfect the timing between attack and defense.

Yamato and Aoba watched her train. They were suspicious of her since she revealed to possess the Sharingan and didn't offer any explanation. Their suspicion, however, didn't faze her as much as Naruto's impromptu friendliness did.

"It would be great when you'd need Sasuke. He thinks he doesn't have any family left. Even the bastard would smile when he'd realise that it wasn't true." The nine tails jinchuriki cornered her one day at dinner.

"Why do you care so much about Sasuke though? Didn't he betray your village?" Toshiko couldn't help but ask. She had heard much of Sasuke in the last few months, none of it being good. She didn't know why Naruto would care for the person who was working with the organisation whose goal was to capture and kill him.

"Sasuke is my friend and I don't abandon my friends." Naruto answered, his eyes lit with determination. "I'm going to bring him back to Konoha."

"Why?" She asked softly.

"If I can't save my friend, how am I supposed to save the village when I become the Hokage?" He grinned.

"Why do you want to become Hokage? After the way the village treated you, why do wish to protect them?" It was a question that she had since she saw the blonde being beat up in front of Yakiniku Q. She remembered his thirteen year old self declaring his wish to become with the same determination as now. Why though? What made it possible for him to forgive them? Was the loyalty to Konoha also brainwashed into his mind as it had once been in hers?

Naruto's eyes darkened at the question. "I understand that the way they treated me wasn't right. They were acting that way because of grief and fear but that doesn't justify it. Keeping grudges, however, would be a failing on my part. I want to become Hokage so that no child goes through what I or Sasuke or Gaara had to go through. I won't give up till I find a way. That is my ninja way."

Toshiko stared at the blonde in wonder. It was the same boy who had tried to convince Killer B to teach him by turning into a naked girl, and now he was sprouting wisdom that men five times his age would be unable to grasp.

Toshiko didn't fail to realise that she herself had left Konoha, unable to forgive and move on and in the process abandoned her friends to terrible fates.

Naruto's words, however, had begun to heal something inside her, something so deep she didn't even know she was hurting from it.

Her soul searching, however, was interupted by absolute chaos during the next few days. Naruto was able to enter the tailed beast mode and discovered Hoshigaki Kisame hiding inside Killer B's sword. Maito Gai was able to defeat him but he sent information to his allies before committing suicide. Soon enough the island was invaded by Kabuto, who had become an ally to the Akatsuki. Toshiko, who had a personal grudge against him tried her best to capture him but 'Uchiha Madara' appeared and rescued him along with kidnapping Yamato.

What struck Toshiko as interesting was the fact that 'Madara' was using Kamui.

The next few days were complete chaos. Toshiko was reassigned to fourth division under Hatake Kakashi. She fought Zetsu clones taking the shape of dead shinobi. She fought actual reanimated zombies who refused to stay dead no matter how many times they were killed. The showstopper however was definitely Uchiha Madara, the real one this time. He appeared on the battlefield as an Edo-tensei and proceeded to wipe the floor with the entire division. It was almost beautiful, the way he cut through so many shinobi without even getting hit a single time.

Toshiko, perhaps in fit of madness, or some weird protective urge Naruto had somehow instilled into her, decided to engage Madara in single combat. 

Sharingan blazing, she teleported in front of him, trying to take him by a surprise attack. It obviously didn't work.

"Ah, an Uchiha. I wondered if I'd be facing someone from my clan." Madara spoke, casually dodging her sword, seemingly without effort.

Toshiko didn't reply. She was too busy trying not to be hit. Even liberal use of Kamui couldn't save her from those deadly taijutsu strikes. Her skills in medical jutsu were being put to test. They didn't match, of course. Madara was damaging her far more quickly than she could heal herself. The worst part was that she knew that he was just toying with her. 

"You have potential." He commented, holding a completely spent Toshiko by the throat. "Too bad you won't have time to grow into it."

"Rasenshuriken!" Naruto came running towards Madara, probably trying to rescue her. Madara responded by throwing her towards Naruto's jutsu.

The last thing Toshiko saw was Naruto's horrified face as thousand wind blades tore her body to shreds.


	8. 8

Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor and resisted the urge to teleport away from Konoha immediately. 

No. This was her home. If there was something she didn't like, it was her job to take care of it . Her friends were here . She couldn't just abandon them to their fates, which she knew to be dreadful. Still, the suffocating feeling from chakra of the Hashirama trees didn't make things easier.

She didn't know what to do. The only lives she had been able to get her Root friends out of their had been when she had told on Danzo. The massacre hadn't happened in those lives but that was only because of Shisui's brainwashing Sharingan. No, that can't happen again, she shuddered, as she remembered the feeling of her being taken apart and remade according to his wishes. She wouldn't wish that on anyone, even those wrinkly elders on the Uchiha council.

Telling on Danzo now, however, would further escalate the tensions between the village and the clan, especially since a Sharingan would be discovered on the elder. The clan hadn't been happy about that, the last time. In hindsight, perhaps that had led to increased support for the coup plans amongst the Uchiha.

Not telling on Danzo now meant leaving Fu, Shinki and Katsu to a life in hell, that was if they all survived, which was unlikely.

All right, then. It looked like she was going back to root, she thought, letting out a hysterical giggle. There must be something really wrong with her to even consider going back there willingly.

It was probably an hour later that she was standing in the same clearing in which she was once kidnapped, keeping herself from glancing warily towards the tree cover where she was able to sense two muted chakra signatures.

It took everything she had to not retaliate when the Root members hit her on the back of her head and let herself be knocked out. She woke in the same dark room, with Danzo standing there like a creepy old man, as she had last time.

"You are Uchiha Toshiko?" He asked.

She nodded. "I am."

Danzo regarded her silently. "Aren't you afraid?"

"No." She answered, truthfully, suspecting he could sense her emotions through her chakra. She had been pretty spooked the last time she was here. But now, considering that she had faced a reanimated version of Uchiha Madara on the battlefield, Toshiko didn't find Danzo that scary anymore. Don't get her wrong, she knew that Danzo could easily kill her, it was just a bit hard to care about dying when you'd wake up again a hours back to do it again.

"Hmm." Danzo had a gleam in his eye. "Perhaps you wouldn't require much of emotional training. Put her with Kinoe." He ordered to the Root shinobi standing gaurd. "Keep me updated on her progress."

As Danzo said, Toshiko wasn't roomed with Fu this time, but with an older boy called Kinoe. Only, Toshiko remembered meeting an older version of him on the island in Kumo. He was called Yamato. She hadn't had much interaction with him, but he definitely hadn't been a Danzo fanatic, unlike Kinoe who basically worshipped the ground the Warhawk walked on. The one and the only time she tried to obliquely complain about Danzo, he was extremely quick to shut her down by telling her how Danzo-sama had saved him and how Danzo-sama knew what was best for Konoha. He was also eleven, and much further in his training to become an emotionless zombie than Fu had been.

He also had the Mokuton, not to the capacity of his future self though, which was natural. It was just far less impressive when she had already seen him use it to constraint a massive turtle.

The interesting thing, however, was that Kinoe was already a Root operative. He had already been doing missions for quite a while and Toshiko couldn't understand why Danzo had ordered to room her with him. She gave up trying to figure it out after a few days. Trying to think like his twisted mind made her nauseous.

She had forgotten how much she hated Root training. She had tested out of standard training on the first day, courtesy of already having done it once. Advanced training on the top of being one-on-one, was worse. Even though she was far better than she was the last time, her instructors didn't give her a moment's reprieve, let alone a word of praise. For every jutsu she mastered on the first try (because she already knew it), another one was sent her way with the same expectations. It would have been easier if she could use her Sharingan, but she had been careful with it even the last time when she didn't know that Danzo was an eye stealing bastard. There was no way she was going to let a glimpse of red appear in her eyes while she was here.

Days started to blur together after some time, which she had expected. The only reason she didn't know her actual age was because of the time she had spent her last time. She didn't know how old she had been when she had died by Fu's hand. It was becoming a pattern for her wasn't it? Being killed by friends.

Either way, her original haphazard plan of inciting a rebellion amongst the recruits had failed spectacularly, by the simple obstruction of never having an opportunity to talk to them. She needed to do something before she was forced to fight someone to death, possibly Kinoe, and she didn't want to do that. Despite his wooden personality, he had grown on Toshiko. Living with someone tends to do that. This was probably Danzo's intention in making his recruits kill their roommates. Only those that didn't have a shred of emotions left in them would be able to do that.

But why had he put her with Kinoe? Kinoe had the Mokuton. He couldn't possibly want him dead. Maybe, he wanted Toshiko dead. But then, why not kill her himself? Why go through the trouble of recruiting her and training her? Was he waiting for her to activate her Sharingan so he could kill her and steal them? But then....

Okay, stop! No more trying to figure out Danzo's motivations. She would go mad, more than she already was, which would be good.

She needed to do something. Something to get the children out of her. Something to prevent Itachi from killing the Uchiha clan. Something to prevent the fourth shinobi war. There were so many things to achieve, and Toshiko didn't have any idea how to achieve that. Getting into Root was a mistake. There was no way she could have successfully got everybody out of here even if she had found an opportunity to incite a rebellion in emotionally suppressed children.

"What is a Hokage supposed to do?" Kinoe spoke up from his side of the room.

Toshiko stared at him for a few seconds, caught off gaurd with the abruptness of the question and the fact that Kinoe had never initiated a conversation before.

"Umm..The Hokage is supposed to protect the village. Like the Fourth Hokage saved the village from the Kyuubi by sacrificing his own life." She answered.

"He didn't." Kinoe said, frowning, which was progress because it was an expression. "The village was destroyed. Everything was rebuilt."

"The village isn't buildings, though, it's the people. He saved the people."

Kinoe had probably grasped something from that as he didn't speak again, contemplating silently.

Toshiko's mind, on the other hand, had just stilled.

A Hokage is supposed to protect the village. That's what Toshiko intended to do. Becoming Hokage would get her the power to do something about the issues she wanted to fix.

She would have to become Hokage.

Having that realisation might have been a big step, but there were multiple problems in that plan. For one, Toshiko is somewhere between six to eight years old. Even if she managed to escape Root, become a Konoha ninja and stay in the village long enough, there was no way she could become the Hokage before she was in her twenties. Only, by then it would be too late.

"Is Sandaime-sama a good Hokage?" Kinoe piped up again.

Toshiko wanted to answer 'definitely not', but she controlled herself. "Why do you ask?"

Kinoe visibly hesitated. "Danzo-sama tried to assassinate him." He eventually said.

"What." 

"He wasn't satisfied with how the Hyuuga affair with Kumo was handled, making Konoha appear weak. He took a team of Root shinobi with him, including me, to kill the Hokage yesterday."

"What happened?" Toshiko gasped. "And why are you telling me this?"

"We were defeated and the Sandaime decided to spare us, after giving a warning to Danzo-sama." He answered. "I'm telling you because you had asked me if I thought what Danzo-sama did was right. I didn't think that this was right."

"Shit. Sarutobi actually let Danzo go after he tried to assassinate him. The old man has lost his marbles." She swore.

Kinoe's face displayed a barely noticeable frown. "You agree with Danzo-sama about Sandaime-sama not being a good Hokage?"

"No! I don't agree with Danzo over anything. And yes we need a new Hokage." 

"That's contradictory." Kinoe responded.

"Deal with it." Toshiko snapped, thinking about possible candidates for the position of the Hokage. Hatake- too young. Nara Shikaku- too unmotivated. Jiraiya-too perverted. "C'mon, isn't there any Konoha shinobi who could be a good Hokage?" She muttered.

"Tsunade-sama is a good candidate, except for the fact she hasn't stepped a foot inside Konoha for years." Kinoe offered.

Toshiko wanted to bang her head against the wall. Tsunade was the Hokage during the fourth shinobi war. Why didn't she think of her?

"Do you know the way out of here?" She asked.

"Why?" Kinoe replied, suspiciously.

"We are going to get Tsunade back to Konoha." Toshiko announced.

It was actually much harder to convince Tenzo to agree to leave without telling Danzo, but Toshiko managed in the end. It was much easier to know which buttons to push when you've been living with someone for years.

Kinoe and Toshiko snuck out of Konoha, to look for Tsunade, scaling the North wall, and the irony wasn't lost to her. She had decided for them to start checking out Tsunade's usual haunts, but they were stopped only a few miles outside Konoha by a squad of Root ANBU.

Kinoe tried to explain the situation rapidly using hand signals (although how he could explain desertion, she couldn't guess), but they didn't get him a chance and soon moved to restrain the both of them. Toshiko didn't resist and neither did Kinoe. They knew it wasn't a fight they could win.

Soon enough, Toshiko was presented, bound with chakra suppression cuffs, on front of Danzo.

"Uchiha Toshiko." He observed. "Which village do you work for?"

Toshiko blinked at that. "Konoha." She answered, only to be rewarded with a ringing slap on her right cheek.

"Liar. I knew there was something up with you when you arrived her, probably the Uchiha trying to plant a spy. That is the reason I put you with Kinoe instead of other recruits. You were more resourceful than I thought, though. Getting Kinoe to betray the village...." Danzo monologued.

"Kinoe didn't betray the village." Toshiko interupted. "Because you aren't the village. You are just a sick, twisted, old man." She didn't wait for the other slap to land and instead channeled a trickle of chakra to her hands to use strength augmentation technique and broke the chakra suppression cuffs.

Danzo was quick to send a wind jutsu in her direction, which she dodged. Not completely though, Toshiko noticed, as she felt a slice of pain over her right arm and blood trickling down. She quickly used Kamui to escape only to appear near the Uchiha compound. She healed her wound and started running towards the Uchiha compound, before changing her mind midway.

The Uchiha couldn't be involved with Danzo. That was the whole point of infiltrating Root instead of exposing Danzo.

A moment later, she felt four muted chakra signatures closing in on her position. They must have known she'd go to the Uchiha. Changing directions, she ran towards the Nara forest, making her remember her first death when she had ran there carrying Sasuke only to caught by Itachi at the border.

She was much faster now. She crossed the border and felt the chakra of boundry seals activating wash over her. Her persuers weren't far behind, as she ran deeper into the forest, hoping the alarm would get the Nara gaurds to her.

She sighed in relief as she saw the Nara Clan Head ahead along with two of his clansman. The relief didn't last as the next second her throat was pierced by a wind chakra coated kunai, killing her instantly.


	9. 9

Uchiha Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor, before rolling over and letting out a groan. 

She was killed by a random Root shinobi. After Madara, it had to be a no name Root shinobi.

That was just pathetic.

It wasn't the time to feel sorry for herself though.

Toshiko got up and decided to continue her self appointed mission to get Tsunade back to Konoha. It would be a lot harder since she didn't have the tragic backstory of 'being kidnapped and forced to become an emotionless child soldier' anymore, but she'd do the best with what she had.

She left the village again by jumping off the northern wall, and made a mental note about that hole in security. It really shouldn't be thus easy to get out of a ninja village.

Toshiko had no idea of Tsunade's actual whereabouts and her search was largely based on visiting her usual haunts that she had observed when she had travelled with her lives ago, and keeping an ear for any news of Legendary Sucker. Her patience bore fruit two months into her search when she found Tsunade in a small gambling town near the border of Land of Rivers.

Tsunade was not impressed at seeing her.

"How old are you, three? Are they recruiting children in diapers now?" She asked her incredulously.

"I'm five, Tsunade-sama. And I'm not a ninja." Toshiko answered.

Tsunade scoffed at that. "If you're not a ninja, kid, then I'm not drunk. I can sense your chakra signature, it's larger a few Jonin I've met, and I've a feeling you're suppressing it."

Toshiko grimaced at that. Tsunade was the one who had taught her the technique to hide the strength of her chakra reserves, which were now, after so many lives, perhaps comparable to Hoshigaki Kisame, the tailless biju.

"I admit I'm more advanced than kids my age, I haven't even the attended the academy yet." The 'yet' part of the statement was what prevented it from being a lie. She had never attended academy before this period in time.

"What is a pre-academy Uchiha brat doing here then?" 

"I've come here to ask you to come back to Konoha and take up the position of Godaime Hokage." Toshiko proclaimed.

Tsunade burst out laughing at that. While Toshiko had expected that, it still put in perspective the enormity of the task she had set for herself. She had travelled with Tsunade for years and knew her complete reluctance of ever returning to Konoha, let alone become the Hokage. But Naruto had somehow achieved it. She didn't know how since she had been kidnapped by Orochimaru by that point, but he had done it. It was possible.

"Tsunade-sama, Konoha needs a new Hokage. Sandaime-sama had retired for a reason. He took up the hat once again after Yondaime-sama's death, but...."

"And why should I care about all that? I've left Konoha, for good. Why do you care about it, anyway? You're just a kid, nit even a ninja, according to you." Tsunade interupted.

"I care because I wish to become Hokage one day." She said with as much conviction as she could. "But I can't do that now, and I want Konoha to be standing by the time I'm ready to defend it."

Tsunade only rolled her eyes at that. "Go back home, kid. This is above your pay grade."

"Konoha administration has been segregating the Uchiha. Kids have been going missing- orphans, clan kids. The new Kyuubi container, who is just an infant, is being demonised and vilified by the villagers." Toshiko recounted. She wished she could talk about Root, but realistically had no way of knowing about that.

Tsunade hesitated a bit. "It's not my problem, kid. I don't care about Konoha."

"But Konoha is your home, isn't it? When there's is a problem in your home you fix it, not run away." Toshiko felt a bit hypocritical, giving that spiel, but ploughed on. "It was your grandfather that had the dream of building Konoha, your granduncle who developed ideas that made Konoha into what it is today. Amd you were the one who revolutionalized medicine in Konoha. I think you're lying when you say that you don't care about Konoha."

Tsunade glared at her. Toshiko had associated that glare with a punch coming a second later, but Tsunade just stomped her foot and walked away. Probably, didn't want to hit a five year old.

Well, it looked like Plan 'Be Like Naruto Part 1: Impassioned Speech' had failed.It was time for Part 2.

Toshiko found Tsunade the next day, in a bar, drinking, at noon. Shizune was there with her, probably for damage control.

"You're here again? Don't you have parents?" Tsunade slurred.

"They have been dead for a while. I'd been living with my grandmother. She died the day I set out from Konoha to search for you." Toshiko answered, truthfully.

"What? You left Konoha alone?" Shizune asked, worriedly. "Tsunade-sama, you didn't tell me that."

"What do you want brat? I already told you I'm not going back to Konoha." Tsunade glared at Toshiko.

"I'm here to make a bet."

"What bet?" Tsunade asked, intrigued.

"I bet that I'll learn any of your techniques in a week. If I do, you'll come back to Konoha with me and become the Godaime Hokage."

"Hah." Tsunade laughed. "And what about when you lose? Do you have anything comparable to bet?"

"My eyes." Toshiko answered, activating her Sharingan. "I have awakened my Mangekyou Sharingan, which grants me the ability of teleportation. You can take my eyes of I'm unable to learn the jutsu."

"I'm not going to take a kid's eyes." Tsunade replied, horrified.

"Then, I'll come with you then. I'll use the eyes whenever you're in need of the teleportation technique." Toshiko offered.

Tsunade looked at her contemplatively.

"Tsunade-sama, you are not actually considering this, are you? She's just a kid." Shizune asked.

"I think we know that she's not just a kid." Tsunade murmured. " All right, brat. I'll agree to these terms. You'll have to learn my yin seal, in a week. Think you're up for it?"

"Tsunade-sama!"

"Quite, Shizune. Well, brat?"

"Bring it on." Toshiko accepted.

"I felt your chakra when you activated your Sharingan. You have almost perfect chakra control, so you are not going to be in any danger. To form a yin seal, you have to send a steady flow of chakra towards the tenkutsu in your forehead. I've done this with tiny trickle of chakra over the years. But with your reserves, you can manage to send twelve streams simultaneously. If you do that twenty four seven, for the next week, you might be able to gain the yin seal. We'll meet here next week to see if we're going back to Konoha or not, okay?" Tsunade asked, completely sober.

Shizune was still looking at her shishou, horrified.

"Okay, I'll see you next week then, Godaime-sama." Toshiko answered, turning to leave the bar. Tsunade didn't reply. Toshiko didn't let that bother her. She had work to do.

The next week was hell. She wasn't exaggerating. It was worse than root training. Toshiko spent the next seven days suiting crossed legged, meditating and sending continuous streams of chakra from all twenty one tenkutsu of her body towards her forehead. She knew she was overdoing it, but she couldn't take any chances. By the end of seven days, she was chakra exhausted, sleep deprived but was a proud wielder of the yin seal, right in the middle of her forehead.

She wasted no time in running to the bar where she had made the bet with Tsunade.

"I won." She whooped coming to a stop in front of Tsunade, barely keeping herself from falling face down.

"You didn't. You're a day late." Tsunade said, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"I'm not. You said seven days." Toshiko protested.

"And it's the eighth day."

"But..." Toshiko was ashamed to say that she felt her eyes moisten and lower lip wobble.

"Oh, don't start crying now. We're going to Konoha. Shizune is packing our stuff now." Tsunade grumbled.

Toshiko looked her wide eyed. "We are?"

"Yes. When you weren't here yesterday, I went looking for you and well,.... We'd have gone to Konoha even if you hadn't succeeded. Good job on that, by the way." Tsunade actually gave her a smile.

"Thank you." Toshiko replied, automatically. She was still shocked at succeeding. And ,perhaps, in actual medical shock too.

"Why don't you rest for some time? It'll be a while before we leave." Tsunade asked, picking up on her exhaustion.

"That's a good idea." Toshiko agreed, passing out in the bar counter.

The next thing she knew was the sound off wood creaking and Tsunade's shout of, "Sensei, I'm here to take your hat."

The actual talks of succession between the Sandaime and Tsunade might have been a bit more detailed, but Toshiko was passed off to Shizune and promptly sent out of the Hokage office, when the next moment Tsunade noticed that she was awake.

Oh, and she also had been made Tsunade's apprentice.

Soon enough, Tsunade's inauguration as the Fifth Hokage took place to the general excitement and approval of the populace. Toshiko didn't know what the reactions of the Uchiha clan were, since Tsunade had apparently talked to Uchiha Fugaku taken Toshiko's gaurdianship under master-apprentice sanctions.

She was also enrolled into the academy, since not doing so would be showing favouritism. 

Toshiko wasn't surprised when she found herself in Itachi's class. He was sitting there, in the back of the class like a good ninja, with the rest of the students giving him a wide berth. He appeared unaffected, but Toshiko knew his tells. His rigid back and tightly help shoulders gave away his discomfort. 

It had been a long time since she had seen Itachi, but the last time she done so, he was her friend, who had cared enough for her to develop the Mangekyou Sharingan at her death.

She walked up to his desk and sat down next to him. "Hello, I'm Uchiha Toshiko." She introduced herself.

"I'm Uchiha Itachi." Itachi replied. "You're Hokage-sama's apprentice?"

"I am." Toshiko answered. "How did you know about that?" The seal on her forehead was a big giveaway.

"That's very impressive." Itachi told her. "You must be very strong."

"I get by." Toshiko shrugged, with false modesty, when the chunnin instructor called the class to order.

The lecture was boring as hell all in itself, but when you're hearing it for the fourth time? Toshiko couldn't wait to get out of the academy. Tsunade, however, insisted that she had to stay there for atleast a year.

Thankfully, Itachi was there to make things interesting. Toshiko and him had been quick to become good friends, probably hastened by her familiarity with him. They studied together and sparred, and for once Toshiko was the one winning most of the time. Itachi, of course, took it as a challenge, and continued to improve further.

Another change was Tsunade's adoption of Uzumaki Naruto, on the grounds of Tsunade's grandmother being an Uzumaki. Toshiko was greatly relieved by that. Tsunade would not let anybody treat her adopted son unfairly.

In fact, Tsunade implemented quite a lot of changes in the village, solving some of the problems Toshiko hadn't even noticed before, like the understaffing of the hospital or the old fashioned academy curriculum. Tsunade introduced the system of internships into various departments in the village, so that genin corps didn't remain the only option for the genin failing their Jonin sensei's test. Even the Uchiha were coming around and quit their grumbling about another Senju Hokage.

The only thing that Toshiko had been hoping for Tsunade to solve, which she hadn't gotten round to yet, was the mystery of missing children a.k.a. Root. She couldn't shake off the thought that Fu, Shinki, Katsu, Kinoe and dozens of other children were going through hellish training right now, when there she was goofing off and eating dango with Itachi.

It wasn't Tsunade's fault, of course. Danzo was a crafty old man. He wouldn't be careless enough to leave any clues leading to him.

Maybe, Toshiko should lend a hand to help expose Root.

Right. It was time to get kidnapped. The only problem was that no matter how many times she strolled alone in the north forest, no Root ninja even tried to kidnap her. Perhaps, she was now considered an high risk target, being the Hokage's apprentice.

After a few days, Toshiko abandoned that plan and simply sneaked to the base that she had been held in, to see if it was still operational. She remembered the hidden way Kinoe had led her to get out of the base quietly. It appeared that security still hadn't been improved there. Toshiko was successful in confirming the operationality of the base, and quickly went to her shishou with that information.

"A secret army of children?" Tsunade looked at her incredulously. "How did you even find that place?"

"I followed a suspicious ANBU." She answered.

"And what made you categorise that ANBU as suspicious?"

"He was wearing the Hound mask." She didn't need to elaborate further. Everyone knew who Hound was and how recognisable he tended to be.

Tsunade was finally convinced of the seriousness of the situation. That didn't stop her from being angry at Toshiko. "And you decided to follow him all on your own? Do you even possess a shred of self preservation?" She shouted.

"I was careful the whole time. I teleported out if there as soon as I thought that I could get caught." Toshiko defended herself.

It didn't mollify Tsunade. She demanded the location of the base and basically told Toshiko she was grounded.

It didn't prevent Toshiko to hear about the fallout from the events set in motion. Itachi was a wonderful source of gossip, especially since Fugaku didn't have any qaulms about telling his son about the ongoings of the clan council meetings.

The kidnapped children had been discovered and only a few of them had been diagnosed socially fit enough to be returned to normal life. The rest had been either sent to join the normal ANBU forces or (those still loyal to Danzo) sent to the Konoha prison.

Danzo had been charged with treason and bloodline theft and executed. The Sandaime had tried to intervene on his former teammate's behalf, but he had been outvoted. Fugaku had been satisfied with the punishment and impressed with the Godaime.

Perhaps this would be enough to prevent any plans of the coup from gaining traction. The Uchiha had been slowly reintegrated in the village and the bias against them was firmly countered. Toshiko's position as the Hokage's apprentice and her work at the hospital also had helped in increasing the clan's reputation. 

The next hurdle in Toshiko's life came with the arrival of Uchiha Shisui.

"Wow, Itachi, I can't believe you're friends with Hokage-sama's apprentice." Shisui suddenly appeared one day, when she as sparring with Itachi. "Hey, Toshiko-chan, is that really a yin seal on your forehead? And is it true that you were the one that convinced Tsunade-sama to return to Konoha and take the hat?"

Toshiko actually stilled in discomfort and very carefully did not meet Shisui's eyes. "Yes, Shisui-san, it's true. Please, excuse me, I'm already late for my lessons with shishou." She wasn't ashamed to admit that she fled.

The next day, Itachi tried asking her about her problem with Shisui. Toshiko didn't want to lie, therefore she told him that it was personal. She told herself that his hurt expression at that answer didn't bother her.

Life continued on. Toshiko graduated academy in one year, like Itachi, though she wasn't put on a team. She continued her lessons on medical techniques and strength augmentation with Tsunade, learned to work with Katsyu, worked at the hospital and started going on missions with other teams.

It was the first time that Toshiko was actually did missions as a genin on jounin track. However, after a month of D ranks, the novelty quickly wore off.

It was her work at the hospital that she loved the most. Kabuto was still there, but Toshiko had no evidence of him being anything other than a loyal genin, so she had to tolerate him. She was careful though. She didn't want to get kidnapped again.

Years passed and despite being shuffled from team to team, and spending majority of her time in the hospital and administrative buildings, Toshiko managed to become chunnin and eventually jonin. Her unorthodox work load, and the tasks set to her by Tsunade led her to assume that the Godaime was grooming her as her successor.

The realisation brought back the train of thought that had inspired her to try to become Hokage in the first place. She had to make sure that Konoha is prepared for the Fourth Shinobi War and Madara.

But, first, she had to take care of another problem.

"No." Tsunade responded to her suggestion of sending a hunter nin sqaud after Orochimaru.

She hadn't forgotten that Orochimaru had invaded Konoha along with the Sand village and killed the Sandaime. Neither had she forgotten the two times he had kidnapped her and forced his cursed seal on her.

Orochimaru was an enemy of Konoha. It was in Konoha's best interests for him to be deader than nails. Toshiko didn't understand why Tsunade was objecting to it.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Orochimaru is currently not causing any problems for us. Sending a hunter nin sqaud after him would accomplish nothing more than a dead hunter nin sqaud." Tsunade said.

"Then send someone who is strong enough to defeat him." Toshiko countered.

"Oh? Someone like you? You think you're strong enough to defeat one of the legendary sannin?" The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"Me and Itachi. Send us together. We can handle him. I'll use Kamui for us to escape if it doesn't go well." She suggested.

Tsunade regarded the suggestion for a few moments. "Fine. Take your boyfriend snake hunting You do need a few S ranked missions on your record, if you're going to be the Rokudaime."

"He's not my boyfriend." Toshiko answered, trying not to react to the confirmation that Tsunade was indeed grooming her to be her successor.

Itachi was not thrilled at the news of their new mission. "I had promised Sasuke that I would be their for his graduation."

"What are going to do at his graduation? It's not like there is a ceremony." Toshiko asked. "Besides you'll be making the world a safer place for him when he finally goes out for missions as a genin."

"Fine." Itachi sighed. "Do you have a plan?"

"Nope. We're winging it."

And 'wing it' they did. Toshiko didn't have any clues to where Orochimaru might be, except for the fact that he had been a member of the Akatsuki at some point and had supposedly founded a village named 'Sound'. None of the facts were something she could use to track him. 

So, they used the old fashioned method of 'asking'. They asked about him at bounty centres, drug dealers, brothels and everywhere else they could. Itachi wanted to use disguises but Toshiko asked him not too. She knew that Orochimaru was after the Sharingan. Two strong Uchiha inquiring about him, wouldn't be something he'd ignore.

After one month of traveling and information gathering, her diabolical plan worked. They were travelling toward the border of Rice Country, when Toshiko sensed a huge chakra source moving towards them at a high speed. Both of them jumped away, and saw a devastating wind attack impact on the place where they'd just been standing.

"Ku ku ku. Atleast, you aren't as pathetic at dodging as you're at information gathering." Orochimaru commented.

"We got you here, didn't we?" Toshiko responded, before punching the ground causing it to erupt into craters.

Orochimaru dodged, but Itachi took the moment to trap him into a genjutsu. Orochimaru fell down unconscious, and Toshiko looked at him increduously.

"That's it? Isn't he supposed to be S rank?" She asked.

"He is." Itachi responded innocently. "I just used a really strong genjutsu."

"Really?" She asked, suddenly glad that Itachi was on her side. 

"We should finish him. The genjutsu won't hold out for long." He simply stated, as if he hadn't brought down a sannin with a 'really strong genjutsu'.

"Alright. I'll take care of that." Toshiko answered, moving forwards. She was not fond of killing, but making sure that the bastard didn't get up again, gave her a sweet feeling of satisfaction. She sealed the head to presented as proof for Tsunade.

Kabuto disappeared from the hospital on the day the news of Orochimaru's death by her and Itachi's hand, was announced.

Now, Toshiko's focus was on preparing for the fourth shinobi war and Madara. Her main advantage was the fact that Madara was dead and he'd be brought back by the jutsu that was described in detail in the scroll of sealing that was sitting innocently in the Hokage's office.

"The Edo-tensei?" Tsunade looked at her sympathetically. "Toshiko, I know sometimes the loss of a loved one becomes unbearable, but this jutsu isn't the answer."

"What? No, no. No! You've got it all wrong. I don't want to use it, I just want to study it in case it's ever used against us." Toshiko tried to explain.

"The jutsu created by my granduncle? Currently written down only in the highly secure scroll of sealing? Used against us?" 

"Yes, yes and yes."

Tsunade put her hand over her forehead. "Why the sudden interest in the jutsu? You don't even know fuinjutsu."

"Sure, I do. There's plenty of sealing in medical jutsu." Toshiko protested.

Tsunade scoffed. "That isn't even one percent of what fuinjutsu masters can do. Jiraiya was the sealing expert on our team, not me."

"Do you think he'd agree to teach me?" Toshiko asked, grimacing. It was important that she figure out a counter to the edo tensei. If it meant that she'd have to willingly spend time with the most perverted man on the elemental nations, then so be it.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that. "I see you're actually quite committed to this. Fine, I'll ask Jiraiya to take you on as a student."

Jiraiya was even more irritating than Toshiko had expected him to be. He frequently left her to spy on hotsprings, rarely explained anything and was completely disinterested in her as a student.

"Maybe you're not as much of a genius as Tsunade thinks you are." He commented one day, watching her struggle with a simple storage seal.

Toshiko glared at him. Ofcourse she wasn't a genius. The only reason that she was able to get what Tsunade taught her, on the first try, because she had already learnt most of it, multiple times.

"I can see you're not even really interested in fuinjutsu. Why are you doing this, unless of course you wanted to be near my charming personality?" He stared at her lecherously.

"I want to learn how to counter the edo tensei." She bit out.

"The edo tensei?" He asked, baffled. "Why on earth would you want to learn that?"

"I don't want to learn the edo tensei. I want to learn how to counter it." She repeated. "Can you help me or not?"

"It would be decades before you're at the level where you can create a seal like that on your own." Jiraiya said. "So, I'll save both of us the pain and create the counter seal for you."

Toshiko blinked at him, thinking she had misheard. "Really? You will?"

"Ha, of course. The Great Jiraiya has only one weakness, he can't say no to a pretty woman." 

Toshiko was so grateful that she even resisted the urge to punch him in the face.

Jiraiya indeed delieverd on his promise and provided Toshiko with the seal in a year. She practiced it obsessively until she put apply it with a touch.

Toshiko had been so focused on the threat of Madara and edo tensei, that she had forgotten about the Akatsuki. She was reminded about them painfully, when Konoha was attacked by Pain.

She hadn't known anything about it (it seemed Konoha had kept a few cards close at the Kage Summit), and therefore was not even remotely prepared for it. She was so stupid. There must have been a reason for Tsunade to fall into a coma, leading to Danzo attending the summit.

Pain was there to capture Naruto, who was at Mt. Myoboku learning sage arts. Jiraiya had been the one who had battled Pain in Ame and left a vague hint with the toads which did nothing to help Toshiko at the moment. It didn't matter if 'the real one wasn't there', because the unreal ones were doing a lot of damage themselves.

They were destroying the village infrastructure, asking every passersby about Naruro's whereabouts and killing them mercilessly when they failed to reply to his satisfaction.

Toshiko came across Itachi fighting two of them simultaneously and moved to help.

"Use one of your strong genjutsu." She shouted, throwing a fireball at her opponent.

"It apparently doesn't work against the Rinnegan." Itachi replied, ducking a thrown sword, before abruptly being pulled back into it.

"Itachi!" Toshiko shrieked, as watched his entire abdomen being ripped open. She quickly activated her Mangekyou and transported both of them to the Kamui dimension.

Itachi was still alive but wouldn't be for much longer. Toshiko quickly started healing him, but as his muscles started being sewn together, Itachi gently pushed her hands away.

"Toshiko, you need to go back." He murmured, weakly.

"Are you crazy? You're dying!"

"I'm not the only one. Konoha needs you more right now." He informed her.

Toshiko realised that he was right. Itachi was her friend, but he was only one person. She couldn't prioritise him over others.

She quickly finished a patch job, and regrettably exited the Kamui dimension. She was shocked to find herself in a barren ground instead of the area she had left. It took her a moment to realise that it was the same area. Pain had destroyed it in the time Toshiko had spent healing Itachi.

An exhausted Tsunade was at the edge of the clearing, talking to one of the Paths of Pain Toshiko saw the moment he moved to attack her and used her Mangekyou to send Tsunade to the Kamui dimension. It turned out to be unnecessary as that was when Naruto appeared and destroyed the path with his Rasenshuriken.

Toshiko let out a wince at seeing that attack in action.

"Hey, Nee-chan. You focus on the injured. I'll show this guy the strength of Konoha, ne?" The blonde asked her, sending her a smile.

Toshiko nodded, retreated back. "Beat his ass, Naruto."

She summoned Katsyu and released her Yin seal. There were hundreds of injured, the slug summon was going to need a lot of chakra.

"Toshiko-chan, stop channelling so much chakra. You'll exhaust it." Katsyu protested.

"Just heal the injured, Katsyu. I've got a lot of chakra, I'll manage."

Naruto did keep up his end of the deal and not only ended up defeating Pain but also convinced him to use his Rinnegan to bring back from dead all those he had killed.

Toshiko stood up, intending to welcome him back and congratulate him, but her legs didn't co-operate. She was suddenly able to feel the cold that had seeped into her body. She tried to use her chakra to heal whatever was wrong with her only to come up blank. 

She was chakra exhausted. No, she was beyond chakra exhausted, she thought, as she felt her heart giving away. 

The world swam before her eyes as she fell down on the ground. She cursed herself as she realised that she couldn't even release Itachi and Tsunade from the Kamui dimension.


	10. 10

"Toshiko-chan. Toshiko-chan." A barely recognisable male voice called out. "Damnit, she's chakra exhausted."

Toshiko felt someone picking her up, as she struggled to open her eyes.

"She must have activated her Sharingan over the grief of her grandmother's death." Another voice replied, dashing any hope Toshiko had of being in the same timeline. "Poor girl must not have known how to deactivate it. Should we take her to the hospital?"

"No, let's take her to Fugaku-sama. He's her temporary gaurdian." The first voice said, making Toshiko want to groan. But neither the person carrying her nor her body took any notice of her objections and she fell back into unconsciousness.

Toshiko woke up on a soft bed, feeling a bit better. Her muscles still felt like jelly and she might fall down if she tried to get up, but atleast she was able to move a bit. Her chakra levels were at the minimum she had ever felt, and that confused Toshiko. It was clear that she had restarted this life with chakra exhaustion, which caused her to remain unconscious for a longer duration than she normally did, leading to the search party finding her passed out in the mask temple. She knew she had died of chakra exhaustion but, the cause of neither of her deaths before had ever been transferred to the reboot. What had changed?

A knock on her door brought her out her musings. Chibi-Itachi was standing there, looking concerned. "Toshiko, I wanted to talk to you."

"Now's not a good time." She replied. She wasn't ready to talk to him. Not when it had been a few hours for since she had lost a version of him that had been her friend for years, who had known her, understood her. This Itachi was six years old. He had never ever met her, and only knew her name because she was recovering from chakra exhaustion at his house.

Wait... He said Toshiko! It had taken years for Itachi to drop the honorifics!

"Itachi?" She asked, hopefully, scrutinizing him carefully.

"Yes?" He answered.

"How'd you defeat Orochimaru?"

Itachi smiled. "A really strong genjutsu."

Toshiko didn't know how she found the energy to do that, but she flew out of the bed and tackle-hugged Itachi, probably squeezing the life out of him. "Oh, it's you. It's you." She sobbed into his shoulder.

Itachi patted her back awkwardly. "You shouldn't be standing up. Come, let's get you back to bed. Try to be a bit quiet, though. I really don't want Kaa-san to find me in your room at three in the morning."

Toshiko let out a wet laugh. "Well, considering that we are six and five respectively, I don't think she'll mind that much."

"Yes, about that. Care to explain how that happened?" He asked, climbing in beside her.

"Why are you asking me?" Toshiko tried to sound confused.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "You're a terrible liar. This has happened to you before, hasn't it? That would explain quite a lot of things."

Toshiko sighed. "Yeah. No one has ever come with me before, though. I don't know how you did."

Itachi's eyes widened. "'Never happened before'? That sounds like more than one experience. How many times had this happened to you, Toshiko?"

"This is my tenth life. Every time I die I wake up on the day my grandmother died."

"You died?"

"Yeah. Chakra exhaustion, which was so stupid. It was even pathetic than the death before that." Toshiko whined.

"Alright, as much as I'd like to hear the whole story right now, I think we should wait for Tsunade-sama." Itachi told her.

"Shishou? But why?"

"It'll be easier to tell the story once and I'm guessing she'll be here soon."

"Are you suggesting that she's back too?" Toshiko asked.

"I am pretty sure that she is, considering that the only reason I can think of for myself being back is that I was in your Kamui dimension at the time of your death..."

"It applies to her, too. Shishou is back, too." Toshiko said, understanding his reasoning.

"I'm guessing she's already in Konoha. It has been fifteen hours since I woke up in my younger body. That's plenty of time to get back to Konoha."

"I better get back to sleep, then. I'll need a lot of chakra to heal myself after she's done with me." Toshiko said, resigned.

"Alright. Good night, Toshiko." Itachi said, climbing out of the bed.

"Stay." Toshiko stopped him, causing him to look at her inquiringly. "This is the first time I'm not alone. I think I'll need a reminder."

"Okay." He acquiesced, settling down beside her.

Toshiko didn't take much time to drift off to sleep.

She was feeling much better the next morning. Itachi was nowhere to be seen. He must have left before Mikoto-sama woke up.

Her good morning vibes were ruined by a messager hawk waiting for her at the window. She took the letter from it and opened it with trepidation.

Training ground thirty at noon.

It was written in one of Tsunade's personal codes, making the identity of the sender pretty clear.

Toshiko wasn't surprised to see Itachi already there, along with Tsunade, when she reached training ground thirty.

"Shishou." She greeted.

"Toshiko, Why do I have a feeling that you are aware of the reason all three of us travelled sixteen years into the past?" Tsunade asked, tapping her feet impatiently.

"Would you both mind following me?" Toshiko asked, instead of answering.

"Not if it gets us some answers." Tsunade said while Itachi shook his head. Toshiko didn't waste time in leading them towards the northern forest, more specifically the mask temple. The insides were as dusty as she remembered. It was a bit strange as this was the first time she had entered the temple since the time she originally did when she was five.

Tsunade and Itachi followed her, curiously looking around.

Toshiko sat down on the floor and prepared herself. "It started on the day my grandmother died." She began. "I ran away crying, ended up here and picked up that mask." She said, pointing towards that specific mask. "I lost consciousness as soon as I touched it, probably from chakra exhaustion. I woke up a few hours later and went back home. Nothing interesting happened for years, until I was twelve. One day I was returning home, and found the compound filled with body's. Before I could figure out the heads and tails of what are happening, you stabbed me in the chest, killing me." Toshiko paused, looking at Itachi.

"What?" Itachi asked, bewildered.

"Let her finish." Tsunade ordered.

"Then I woke up as a five year old on the day my grandmother died. I figured no one would believe me, so I tried to find ways to save myself. I learned medical jutsu so that I could heal myself, but this time you cut off my head. I later found out that you were ordered by Danzo to kill off the Uchiha because the clan was planning a coup. Imagine my surprise, when I woke up, again, as a five year old. This time I didn't stay in Konoha, but tried my luck as a civilian in the Fire Nation. It didn't turn out that well, but then I met you." Toshiko gestured towards Tsunade, who was regarding her with a neutral expression. "I travelled with you and Shizune for years until I was killed by given a curse seal by Orochimaru, which killed me. In my next life I was kidnapped by Danzo and trained for root. I let myself be killed at the graduation test. In the next one, I tried being a medic again but was kidnapped by Orochimaru and given the cursed seal again, which drove me mad enough to kill Itachi, who was an ANBU who had come to rescue me. I was executed. Let's see, in my next life, we actually become friends. Then, Shisui decided to use his brainwashing genjutsu on me to make sure that I remain loyal to Konoha. You noticed and made him indi it, which killed me. In the next one, I left Konoha and became a samurai in Tetsu no kuni. I hardly had any interaction with Konoha until the fourth shinobi war where a reanimated Uchiha Madara killed me. In my next life, I decided to infiltrate Root and incite a rebellion. It wasn't one of my best plans. I abandoned it and tried to run away and was killed by Root shinobi. The life after that was the one when you too knew me. And here we are." She finished, avoiding looking at any of them.

Tsunade waited a few minutes before speaking. "And it didn't occur to you to tell me any of this before?"

"Would you have believed me?" Toshiko countered.

"That is a secondary matter. We have methods to determine the truth if it seems too far fetched. You are a shinobi of Konoha, amd you had valuable intelligence. Intelligence that could have saved lives, and you kept it to yourself, for decades." Tsunade shouted. "I can't believe that I actually considered you to be a good Hokage candidate."

Tsunade was breathing heavily, while silence reigned in the room. Toshiko didn't dare to say anything to defend herself.

"Here's what's going to happen now. You will tell me, no, you'll tell Itachi everything that has happened in all your lives. You'll not skip over anything, you'll not change anything and you'll not decide for yourself if it was important or not. You'll do that or I'll never let you become a Konoha shinobi, is that understood?" Tsunade asked, her face set in stone. Toshiko had never seen her that livid.

"Yes, ma'am." Toshiko quickly agreed.

In the following days, Tsunade was instated as the Godaime Hokage, and Toshiko spent her days telling Itachi small details of all her lives. Itachi had been sympathetic and also very apologetic about his role in three of her deaths. Toshiko waved off his apologies, reminding him that she had also killed him once.

Tsunade's administration started changing things at a fast pace. Since she had already done it once and knew what to expect, things were going well. Danzo had been exposed and brought to justice. Root had been disbanded. Academy had been revamped.

Toshiko was finally done with the recollections and Itachi was going to present his report to Tsunade soon. Toshiko had a free day and she was wondering about what to do. She looked herself in the mirror and focused on her bare forehead. She hadn't tried to get her yin seal back since she had used it during Pain's attack. It didn't seem right when Tsunade was so mad at her. But she felt different without it; incomplete...

A knock brought her out of her thoughts. She opened the door to find Tsunade on the other side.

Toshiko gaped at her for a few seconds.

"Not going to invite me inside?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Aah, forgive me shishou. Please come in." Toshiko apologised, ushering her inside.

Tsunade took a seat opposite to her. "I'm here to apologise."

Those were definitely not the words Toshiko was expecting even a bit.

"I was unfairly harsh with you. I neglected your traumas and admonished you at the time when you needed my support as your teacher." Tsunade continued. "My only excuse is that I had seen my village getting destroyed and hearing that you could have prevented that, it led me to lose control."

"I.."

"I understand now that you hadn't known anything about Pain. Your boyfriend has been uncharacteristically opinionated in his report." Tsunade smirked.

"He's not my boyfriend." Toshiko protested weakly.

"Well, I hope not. You're only five." She smiled, before getting serious again. "Toshiko, I believe that you should have come forward with the information you had. But I can understand why you didn't."

"Thank you." Toshiko said, wiping a few stray tears from her cheek.

"And would like you to become my apprentice again, if you think you can trust me again."

"Of course." Toshiko nodded.

"Good." Tsunade said, smiling. "You better start working on that yin seal, then."

It was a few years later when with a yin seal displayed proudly on her forehead, and with Konoha forehead protector around her neck, Toshiko entered the mask temple again.

Itachi was examining the time loop mask, with his Sharingan.

"Figured anything out?"

"It's a space time technique. It's transporting your soul through similar dimensions." He answered. "It has forged a connection to you and is constantly taking your chakra, which is fueling the seal. That is why you were chakra exhausted when you brought me and Hokage-sama along with you this time."

"Will it ever end?" Toshiko asked the question she wanted an answer to.

"I'm pretty sure that breaking the mask would break your connection to it." Itachi said.

"How sure is pretty sure?"

"About ninety six percent."

Toshiko looked at the mask. It was a such a small thing and it was responsible for all that shit that had happy. It was also responsible for her finally having a chance to live her life.

If she destroyed it, there would be no more chances. If she died, that would be it. She didn't know how to feel about that.

In the last few years, Tsunade had made good use of whatever snippets of information Toshiko had been able to provide. The Akatsuki was gone, including Pain and fake Madara. Orochimaru was dead. Kabuto was in prison. There was no one left to revive the real Madara. The fourth shinobi war wasn't going to happen. At least not the world ending catastrophe that Toshiko remembered.

There wasn't really any need for her to bet on second chances. But she still hesitated.

Perhaps she needed to take a leap of faith.

"That's good enough for me." She told Itachi. "Would you burn it for me?"

Itachi responded by lighting a fire on his fingertip and bringing it to the mask. It easily caught fire.

"Show off." Toshiko teased, as the mask burnt to ashes in front of her eyes.

"How do you feel?" Itachi asked her.

"I don't know..." She hedged. "Lighter" She finally said. "Like something heavy has been lifted."

"That's good." Itachi smiled. "Maybe now you'll finally be able to get that proposal ready for your Hokage candidacy."

"Maybe." She said, turning towards the door. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Gladly." Itachi followed her.

* * *

It was decades later when Toshiko woke up feeling a sharp ache in her chest. She opened her eyes only to come face to face with man with a wrinkled face and grey hair, who looked oddly familiar.

"Itachi? Is that you?" She rasped out.

The man smiled, offering her a glass of water. "It's me. How are you today, Toshiko?"

"Wow, you look old." She exclaimed, taking the glass from him.

This prompted a chuckle from Itachi. "That's probably I am old. I'll be 72 next month." He told her patiently, although with a tone that this conversation had happened a lot of times.

"I'm 71, then? Wow, I'm old." She exclaimed. "What are you doing here though?"

"I'm visiting you. I do that every day." Itachi answered.

Toshiko frowned. "I don't remember meeting you yesterday." She grimaced as she felt another pang in her chest.

"Toshiko, are you okay?" Itachi asked her, sounding worried.

"I'm fine." She answered automatically, before another sharp bout of pain made her cry out.

"Toshiko!" Itachi sounded frantic now, which was strange because she didn't remember Itachi ever sounding frantic.

"I think I'm dying." Toshiko told him, which turned out to be not a good decision, as he promptly turned to get a healer.

Thankfully, Itachi had gotten slow in his old age, and Toshiko was able to stop him by calling out his name. "Stop. It's fine. It's not a bad death." She pointed out.

Itachi looked conflicted for a moment before resignation took over his face. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" He asked, taking her hand in hers.

Toshiko smiled, even though the pain. "I would be very pissed off if wake up again as a five year old."

"Hey, I told you I was pretty sure about that, didn't I?"

"You did. I remember that. You said you were ninety six percent" Toshiko managed to say before a bout of cough overtook her.

Itachi helped her sit up and squeezed her hand tighter. "You'll go to the Pure World this time." He said as he soothingly rubbed circles on her back. "You'll meet your parents and your grandmother. I'll be coming there soon enough, too."

"Take your time." Toshiko breathed out.

Itachi chuckled. "I probably won't."

Toshiko felt numbness spreading through her body. It was quite a relief after the pain. "Bye, Itachi."

"Bye, Toshiko." She heard, as she went to sleep the final time.

She did not wake up again.


End file.
